Night Hunters Prophecy of Power
by jinakel wohess
Summary: The Gundam boys survive as Vampire Hunters, but will they be destroyed by one of their own? Warnings: There are some violent scenes involved. OC (cause i don't like Relena), and sorry Fei-lovers, but he's kinda bad in this one.
1. Prologue

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

Prologue to NightHunter

**The Sister**

Duo walked silently next to her, trying to control the emotions he felt for her and the internal flame that warmed his body every time he was near her.  He tried to concentrate on the walk to her tiny apartment, rather than the way her light blue eyes sparkled in the twilight.  Loving her was wrong, and he knew it.  But he just couldn't help himself.

The night was cool, sending a shiver up his back as the cold wind blew around the coat he hugged tightly to him.  He was, of course, dressed for his "occupation."  His large boots made soft thudding noises against the street as they walked.  Form-fitting black leather pants and a tight black button-down shirt were mostly concealed by the knee-length black wool trench coat he wore.  

He recognized the spot where they'd met, two weeks ago, as they passed by.  He remembered the first time he saw her…

_His most recent satisfied customer had given him extra money for cab fare.  Nice guy, huh?  Duo took a cab back to this dirty part of town, where the grime was permanently all over everything, including him.  He always felt dirty after turning tricks, and today was no different.  To get his mind off of his joyless life, Duo started to walk aimlessly through the alleyways.  Maybe he'd get lucky and someone would shoot him in the back for no reason.  That would end his suffering.  _

_Instead, he ran into her.  Three men were holding her down, or trying to.  For being such a small woman, she had surprising strength, and she fought back ferociously.  Her parcels that she'd been carrying were at Duo's feet, dropped a few meters away from where they'd finally tackled her.  He stalled.  He knew he shouldn't get involved.  But what they were trying to do was wrong, on so many different levels.  _

_Duo charged the group, knocking two down with his chaotic tackle and making the third turn and run.  These idiots were always so brave when they tried to get a girl.  Throw one guy in the mix and they run like frightened mice.  He smiled as they all rushed back into the darkness of the alleys.  _

_He didn't look at her as he walked back past her, gathering the few things she'd dropped.  He was ashamed.  Ashamed of who he was.  Ashamed that a tainted whore had to help save…save…_

_"Thank you, child," she said with a soft voice._

_Duo only nodded and held her belongings out to her.  She took them and smiled warmly at him.  Surely, she had to know what he was.  Didn't she?_

_She must have sensed his tension, for she bowed her head slightly and walked the opposite direction from him.  Duo stared after her for several seconds, wondering if he…should he?  Oh, what the hell?  He'd do it._

_"Sister," he called to her, running a little to catch up and walk beside her.  "Let me see you safely home."_

_"I would like that very much…"_

Every day since that night, he'd met her at the doors of the church at twilight.  They developed a strong friendship on those walks as he escorted her safely to her apartment.  Sometimes, when his work had been slow and he was still awake at dawn, he'd meet her at the steps of her apartment to walk her back to the church.  He loved the way her face lit up when he surprised her like that in the mornings.  She'd always offer for him to join her in the church.  But someone like him would dirty the beauty of the church where she volunteered.

She squeezed his arm a little, bringing him out of his reverie.  "Dear," – she always called him some little affectionate name like that – "how has your work been lately?  I hope more than enough for adequate sustenance."

Duo gulped.  "It has been well enough, Sister.  It's only for the money…" he started to explain to her, for the hundredth time.  

"I know," Sister Clarence said with a pat on his arm.  "I know."  

He looked down at her.  Her light blue eyes were wide and innocent.  Her youthful and beautiful face was the only part of her that he could see due to her required robes.  He could hear the rosary beads hanging from her belt clink as they walked through the dark alleys.  No one was out tonight.  Too cold for pedestrian traffic.  

"Sister?" he asked for her attention, distracted momentarily by the small fog that resulted from his warm breath.  He dreaded this time of year.  Winter was dangerous to streetrats.  

"What is it, dear?"

"Can I confess to you?"

Sister Clarence stopped walking and turned to look at him.  Her ice-blue eyes were now serious as she peered up at his face.  "Priests hear confessions, child.  I am but a nun."

"I know, but if I tell you…will…"  Duo didn't know how to phrase what he wanted to say.  He wasn't even sure of what he wanted to ask.

"If you speak, dear, God shall know what is in your heart, no matter who you tell."  Sister Clarence looked thoughtful for a moment.  "So yes, you may talk to me.  I will hear you, but God is the one who listens."

Great, that just made him feel more guilty.  Duo looked down to the ground.  "Sister, please, do not be upset with me," he began.  He reached down to grab each of her small hands in his own.  She looked up at him expectantly, waiting to hear what he had to say.  "Please do not be upset with me, but I'm afraid.  I'm afraid I love you, Sister Clarence."  Duo felt her hands start to pull away from him.  "Please Sister," he begged, dropping to his knees and looking up at her eyes.  "Please Sister, forgive me."

He saw her frightened face soften after he fell to his knees.  She brought a hand up to caress the side of his face, brushing aside his bangs.  A smile brightened her features, and she went down to her knees as well, to look him in the eye.  Duo's head started to spin as she came closer, her face within such a close proximity to his own.  Not until her lips brushed against his and his eyes closed instinctively did he realize that the lovely Sister Clarence, the light of his dreary world, was kissing him.

"How blasphemous," a dark and husky voice said from in front of him.  Duo's eyes snapped open in time to see a large scary-looking man put a gun to the back of Sister Clarence's head.  Her eyes remained closed, even when she heard the click of the safety turned off.  

Duo trembled where he knelt, not knowing what to do.  Most likely, doing anything would get the Sister's beautiful head blown off.  So he remained, fear and uncertainty reflecting in the liquid depths of his blue-violet eyes.  Slowly, the Sister's eyes opened.  She looked incredibly calm, considering the situation.  A little smile played at the corners of her mouth and she squeezed his hand slightly.  She meant to comfort him.

"So, Sister," the man continued, saying the word "sister" with as much disdain as he possibly could, "indulging in the darker side of life?  This little street whore is some trickster, I hear.  Not the fresh innocent virgin that you are."  The man reached down and pulled Sister Clarence's head coverings off to reveal her short raven hair.  "You just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, Sister.  Too bad for you."

Duo's fear was replaced by anger as he saw the man lick his lips in anticipation.  He'd die before any vermin like this guy could touch Sister Clarence.  

"Stand up," the man ordered, jabbing the Sister in the back of the head with his gun to emphasize his point.

"Heero," Duo heard the Sister whisper.  Her eyes were frantically searching behind Duo, looking for something.  Or someone.  

"UP!" the man insisted.  

Sister Clarence held her arms out, accepting Duo into her embrace as they stood up together.  

"Aw, isn't that sweet?" the man mocked, jabbing her in the head with the muzzle of his gun again.

"Heero," she said again, a little louder.  Her chin was resting on Duo's shoulder as they held each other.  He couldn't understand why she was calling for some guy named Heero.  Duo's body tensed involuntarily as another figure appeared in the darkness behind the man threatening Sister Clarence's life.  He saw the gleam of metal and heard the answering click of a handgun cocked as the new figure brought his gun to the back of the man's head.  

Without being asked, the man's hands went in the air, and the gun he'd been holding to the Sister's head dangled from one finger.  The new man took the gun and must have put it in the back of his belt, judging from the way his arm moved.  He resumed a two-handed grip on the pistol trained on the man's head.  "Hilde," he called softly.

Sister Clarence stirred in Duo's arms, pulling away from him with a smile and then moving quickly.  She reached into the armed man's jacket, pulling out the recently stashed gun and trained it on the head of the previous threat.  The blue-eyed man, who Duo assumed must be her friend, relaxed and trained his eyes up and down the alleyway.

"How many?" Sister Clarence asked, glancing at her friend who was doing a perimeter check.  She kept the muzzle of her gun against the temple of the other man.  "Heero," she called to him again.  "How many?"

So that guy was Heero, Duo thought, watching him as he moved.  "I count four down the east alley, three behind the dumpster in the south.  Two are in a doorway straight ahead."

"Nine total?" the Sister asked.  

"Ten, including him," Heero said, jerking his head in the direction of the man now on his knees in front of Sister Clarence.  

Duo scanned the places Heero indicated, seeing the lurking forms of men watching them.  He was used to this dark, and he could see well.  Better than this Heero guy, he thought, noticing that there were really four men behind the dumpster and one behind the pile of trash opposite the dumpster in the south alley.  "There's five total down there," Duo said, nodding his head in the direction of the alley to his right.  "And there's three on the roof of the red building.  Five on the roof of the next building."

Heero and Sister Clarence both glanced in the directions that Duo indicated, resting their eyes on the men on the roofs.  "Shit," Heero muttered.  

"Where's Wufei?" the Sister asked.  Duo was beginning to doubt that she was a true nun.  Heero didn't answer her.  Someone from the roof did.

"We have your partner!" the voice yelled.  "A guy who calls himself Nataku.  Recognize him?"  

"Yeah," Heero said loudly in answer.

"We don't want to get mixed up in this anymore.  Lets just save us all a lot of pain and make a clean trade here.  What do you say?"

"I say we can't trust them," Sister Clarence growled.  "No way are they going to just let Nataku walk if we hand over their second in command," she reasoned.

"Do we have a choice?" Heero asked in a low voice.  "Get up," he said, directing his attention to the "second in command."  He screamed up at the rooftops.  "You got a deal."  They all waited as the five men on one roof made their way down the fire escape.  One of the men was definitely a prisoner, being pushed in from behind as they walked down the stairs.  They reached the ground, next to the two men who'd been standing in the doorway.

"Send him across," they insisted.

"Send Nataku," Heero demanded, grabbing the second in command's arm roughly.  

"No deal," a steely voice called as a gun was put to the prisoner's head.

"Alright, alright!" Heero screamed to stop them.  He held his hands up in resignation.  "Your man first."  Leaning close to the man, he growled, "Go, and I can still shoot you if I want."

Duo watched as the second in command made his way down the dirty alleyway toward his fellow gang members.  As soon as the man reached there, he turned around with a pistol in hand, shooting in his direction.

"Get down!" Heero growled as he tackled Duo.  Duo was shaken badly, unsure of what was going on, who Sister Clarence was, and who the hell this guy was.  More gunfire shattered the stillness of the night as bullets sprayed down the alley.  They'd temporarily taken cover behind an abandoned car.  Duo couldn't see the Sister.

"Heero," he heard a voice yell.  Both he and the Heero guy looked behind them, seeing the short dark hair of Sister Clarence briefly over the edge of a high brick wall.  How had she made her way up that wall?  "This way," she urged.

Heero grabbed Duo by the elbow and shoved him in the direction of the wall across the alley.  They scurried while crouching to the other wall.  Duo looked up the eight-foot wall.  No way he was getting his skinny ass up there.  More bullets hit around them.  The guys in the south and east alleyways were responding to the shooting, looking to trap the people in the alley.  Heero nudged Duo as he put his gun in the back of his pants again.  This guy had a habit of doing that, Duo thought.  

"Get up," he grunted, holding his hands in a position to boost Duo up the wall.  Duo put his foot in the man's hands and felt himself being thrust upwards.  He caught a small ledge six feet up the wall and turned around to help Heero get up.  No need.  Heero's big hands grabbed the edge of the ledge, and he used his extreme upper-body strength to pull himself up.  Duo jumped very ungracefully down the other side of the wall, and Heero landed like a cat.  The guy ignored the glare Duo gave him.  

"Come on," Sister Clarence urged, grabbing Duo's arm and pulling him in the direction Heero had taken off in.  

He didn't remember the trip to this apartment.  He only remembered running and ending up here, untying his boots as he walked in the doorway.  Sister Clarence had slipped out of her shoes easily when she entered the apartment and the Heero guy was currently untying his own boots.  Duo glanced around.  The apartment was nice, with wooden floors and an open den that separated from the kitchen by a bar counter.  

"What will Trowa think about Wufei?" the Sister asked.  Duo had to find out her real name.  She was obviously not a true nun.  

"How the hell should I know?!" Heero yelled, turning around to glare at the former-nun.  "I walked into this room at the same time you did, Hilde.  Why would I know what Trowa or anyone thinks says without having the time to ask first!?"

The former-nun, now known as Hilde, pouted a little and put her hands on her hips, looking hurt.  "Are you mad at me, Heero?"

The guy softened his gaze.  "No, Hilde, I'm not mad at you.  I'm not mad at me.  I'm not even mad at Wufei.  I'm just mad in general."  Hilde breathed a little easier.  "Now go get dressed.  You look ridiculous as a nun."

"Ha!" the girl Hilde said as she walked around a corner and out of sight.  Duo could still hear her bantering Heero from what Duo supposed was her room.  "Next time I'm going to make you dress up as the nun!"

Heero grunted and sat down in front of the computer on the bar counter, typing with one hand while he unbuttoned his nondescript dark shirt and tossed it aside to the floor.  Duo watched for a moment as he worked.  He looked around the apartment.  He looked the way Hilde had disappeared.  He had obviously gotten into something way over his head.  With a sigh of confusion, Duo turned around to head out.

"By the way," the gruff voice said without looking up from the computer.  "Thanks for your help tonight."  Heero turned around and looked at Duo.

He stood for a moment, unsure. He really hadn't helped a whole lot, he thought.  "No problem," he said finally, regaining his happy-go-lucky attitude.  "I'll catch you guys later."

"That's the second time you've helped her," Heero stated, referring to when she'd been attacked.  "That kind of help is not taken lightly.  You should stay."

Duo paused for a moment.  He wanted to stay.  He wanted to see Hilde.  But this whole revelation of her not being a nun was overwhelming to Duo.  Besides, these two "partners" might be more than partners.  Who knew?  

"No," he answered, finally.  "I should be going."

"It's dangerous for you now." 

Duo stalled at that statement, walking back over to the growling one.  "What do you mean?"

"Those men aren't who you think they are.  And you've been seen with us.  It isn't safe for you to leave," Hilde answered as she reemerged into the den.  She was wearing a tank top and loose fitting jeans that hung low on her hips, exposing a tiny ring of midriff.  Quite different than the way Duo was used to seeing her, that's for sure.  He couldn't get his mouth to close from where it'd dropped on the floor.

"Trowa and Catherine are on their way.  They'll be here to assist by tomorrow night," Heero announced, still clicking away on the laptop.  "What did you find at the church?"

Hilde sighed and flopped onto the big couch in the den.  She reached up and grabbed a hold of Duo's arm as she sat, dragging him down on the couch with her.  "I found out that you were right about the poor girl who escaped.  She's been hiding in that church for weeks, it seems.  And she told me that while she was prisoner with those pets, she overheard something about the Elders of the Triad are searching for a Pureblood, or something like that, to fulfill some prophecy."

"That's pretty general shit, Hilde."

"I can't help it.  The girl was twelve and just escaped from the clutches of vampire pets.  She was so scared she couldn't even sleep during the day," Hilde pouted.

And now Duo was really getting confused.  Were these people actually talking about vampires?  He decided to clear things up.

"Vampire pets?" he asked, speaking lowly to Hilde.

She nodded.  "Humans that want to be vampires, so they do whatever their master vampire wants.  It's pathetic really.  That was a gang of them that we ran across in the alleyway."

"They didn't recognize you with the nun outfit on," Heero said from where he was sitting.

"Sure didn't.  Which was the point, if you'll remember…"

"I remember, I remember," Heero sighed, still typing on his laptop.  

Duo decided to interrupt.  "So, vampires are real?" he asked.  His world had been thrown upside down in the last hour, so right now he was about willing to believe anything.

"You bet," Hilde said with a flash of a smile.  "Heero and his comrades from the war, Trowa and Wufei, are part of a vampire hunting group.  Me too, and Trowa's sister Cathy.  We move around a lot, searching for and hunting down large vamp clans.  There just happens to be one here in Chicago."

Heero stood up and threw the laptop across the room.  It smashed against the spotless white wall, leaving a dent and scraped off paint where the computer struck.  "They got Wufei.  Fucking Triad got Wufei," he hissed, sitting back down on a chair.

"Poor Cathy," Hilde muttered.  "She'll be heart-broken."

"Triad, as in the Chinese mafia?" Duo asked.

"No, that's the name of the group of eldest vampires.  They call themselves the Triad because there are three of them.  And they are each over five hundred years old.  The Elders work together loosely and have a lot of power due to their age.  They control most of the vampire clans," Hilde explained, keeping her voice down so as not to anger Heero any more.

Heero stood up swiftly again, and Duo jumped at the sudden movement.  "Hilde, get the kid a sword or something would you?  I don't want him out there with us if he's unprotected."  Heero stalked off, disappearing around the doorway to the kitchen and down the hall to the bedrooms.

"Out there with you?" Duo repeated.

Hilde was beaming.  She jumped up from her seat and sat in Duo's lap facing him.  "This is great!  Heero's let you in the group, Duo!  Isn't it great?"

"I'm a vampire hunter now?" Duo asked, his voice shaking a little.  "But I don't know anything about…"

"Oh don't worry, no one ever knows what's going on at first.  But Heero'll teach you.  He'll teach you how to use a sword and how to track them and how to strike to kill them right off…"  Hilde's excitement waned for a minute as she stared into Duo's eyes.  He felt his legs grow weak, and he was extremely grateful for the fact that he was sitting on a couch.  And having the object of his affection on his lap was deserving of gratitude as well.

She leaned forward and kissed him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

"Will you stay with us, Duo?" she asked after she pulled away, whispering softly into his ear.  

Duo contemplated a moment.  One option was to forget the existence of vampires, vampire hunters, Hilde, and go back to being a whore on the streets of Chicago and hoping he had enough money to buy food for the next day.  The other option was to get thrown head first in an adventure with vampires, vampire hunters, Hilde, and be a part of this group as they traveled around the world and basically saved all of humanity.  Tough decision.  

Things had happened too much too fast, but Duo wasn't a complete moron.

"I will definitely stay."


	2. Vampire of Vermin

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.**

**Chapter One**

"Jackass," Duo muttered to his captors as he was dragged through the damp and dungeon-looking castle.  It was right out of a storybook, he thought.  The whole Count Dracula living in some dark and foreboding stone castle.  And he thought that was just a stereotype.  Until now.  

"Move it, vermin," one of the vamps holding his arm hissed, showing off his elongated incisors and growling menacingly.  Normally, Duo would be scared at the closeness of the vampires around him.  And this was one of those normal times.  Duo was terrified.  

He glanced to his side as the vamps took him down the long corridor in the basement of the castle.  It was obviously an old jail or dungeon area.  The wide stone hallway had to gutters on either side, looking more like an underground road than an indoor passage.  On either side of him, black iron bars caged in various creatures, from sniveling humans to the most demon-like vamps he'd ever seen.  Those things looked more like beasts than the humans they used to be.  One particular creature was snarling and chewing on the bars in an attempt to get out.  It reached through the bars and tried to grab him as they passed, making its own blood spill into and flow down the gutters as it cut itself on the recently sharpened metal bars.  Duo shuddered.  

"Master," the vamp holding his left arm hissed, bowing and getting on his knees.  His captors took him with them to the ground as they paid homage to the stern-looking Chinese vamp in front of them.  Duo's wide violet eyes widened even more than when he'd seen the bloody demon a couple cages down.  In the middle of the indoor road, Chang Wufei stood waiting for him.  He'd seen pictures.  Duo knew exactly who this guy was the moment he saw him.  After all, he and the other Night Hunters had been chasing this exact vamp for the last three years.  

Chang came forward, his arm appearing from beneath his black cape to reach out and grab Duo's wrist.  Duo tried to get away.  But Chang had an iron grip and kept a strong hold on his wrist while pushing Duo's long-sleeved shirt up to reveal his forearm.

"I don't know who you are," Chang said with a remarkably human voice, for being the leader of a horrendous society of vamps… "But I know what this means."  The vamp glared down at Duo's arm, seeing the tail end, literally, of the large winged dragon tattoo that snaked around his forearm and up to his shoulder.  He didn't need to see past the vermin's elbow to know what the rest of the tattoo looked like.  

"Can we eat him?" one of the vamps asked in a quiet voice.  

"No," Chang replied.  "His link to my old comrades will draw them out of the shadows.  We'll be able to kill them easily using this one as bait.  That will end any slayer threat to our clan.  And then we have only the Pureblood to find."  He looked aside to a figure in the cage on his left.  "Do you hear that, traitor?  After I kill the human slayers, your precious Pureblood will be all alone and vulnerable to attack…"

Duo flinched as he heard the low growl emitted from the cage.  A girl stood inside.  Correction, a vampire stood inside.  Odd to see a female vamp, his mind sidetracked for a moment.  But she looked the part.  Her pale ivory skin contrasted completely with her long dark hair, dark brown eyes, and black garb.  But her eyes didn't seem to focus correctly as she glared at Chang through the bars.  Her lips were curled into a very scary snarl.

"Step closer and say that," she challenged, coming closer to the bars.  It looked to Duo like she had been in there for a few days.

One of the vamps behind Chang stepped forward, taunting her by running his hand back and forth across the bars in front of her face.  "She's too deep in the lust to think straight," he commented, looking at Duo.  "Perhaps she'd feed on this rat."

Chang's eyes lit up at the idea.  It was perfect.  The traitorous _woman_ vampire refused to feed on humans, preferring the blood of her own kind and absorbing their strength.  Now that she was becoming consumed by her bloodlust after being held in his dungeon for the past six days, Wufei was torn between breaking her spirit and tempting her to eat a human or using the little rat to destroy his biggest threat – the group of slayers he'd once been a part of.  Too hard to choose.  

"Let her choose," Chang ordered.  "Throw the vermin in.  If she eats him, fine.  We'll still starve her till she becomes a beast like the others.  If she doesn't, fine.  We'll still use him to pull out our enemies and destroy them.  Then starve her into a beast."  He smiled at the prospect.  This was the best way to torture two souls.  He'd sleep well today.

Duo didn't even have time to register what was happening to him before he was thrown harshly against a stone wall and heard the loud clang of the gate being shut again.  As soon as he gathered his senses, he immediately ran to the bars, as if running head first into metal was the only way to prove he'd really been thrown into a cell.  Chang was already gone, along with most of his vampire cronies.  Only that a few remained, including that one that had taunted the girl in the cell.

The girl in the cell! his mind screamed at him to remember.  Duo turned around slowly, seeing the dark creature behind him.  His knees felt weak and he turned back to the bars.  The taunting vamp brought his hand up again, this time brushing the bars in front of Duo's face, just trying to make him angry.  

"She'll eat you, you know.  Little rat won't even last until tomorrow," the vamp said with a sneer.  "Your blood will wash down the gutter.  You're nothing but a meal, waiting to be eaten."  

Without warning, Duo felt something swift beside him and he backed away from the rush of air that brushed against his cheek.  With eyes wide, he watched as the girl vamp held tight to the teasing vamp's wrist, making blood drip as she dug into him with her nails.  The teasing vamp looked terrified, trying desperately to get his hand back by clawing at her grip.  He whimpered as he tried to break free.  Viciously, the girl vampire leaned down, licking the blood dripping from his wrist.  Smiling.  Then she bit him.

The blood-curdling scream echoed through the stone hallways, making the beasts and other creatures of the dark dungeon howl and snarl in response.  Duo just stared, having never seen a vampire consume the blood of its own kind.  It was an ancient decree, the traitorous act of cannibalism among the undead.  It was strictly forbidden.  And here she was, doing it.  Soon, she let go.  The victim vampire cradled his arm against his chest as he whimpered and ran away.  

Wiping the blood from her lips and chin, she merely looked at Duo before retreating into a corner, pulling her legs up and wrapping her arms around them as she sat.  

"I won't hurt you," she said, her voice seemed so different now that she wasn't snarling or growling at someone.  

Duo just backed away from her, seeing the fresh blood as it trickled down the gutter outside the cell bars.  He was locked in a cell with a vampire.  He shuddered as he backed away, not stopping till he hit the wall farthest from her and the gate to the cell.  

"I understand," she said simply.  Duo's heart ached a little.  She seemed hurt that he'd been so scared of her.  And really, he had no reason.  Chang had called her a traitor.  He'd seen her feed off of another vampire with his own eyes.  That meant she wasn't a threat, right?  Maybe.

"How long have you been here?" he asked, his voice shaking with fear and cold.  The stone floors and walls weren't too comforting and warm, he noted.  

"Five days, six nights.  About to be six days," she replied, looking up as if she could see the sun rising through the stone ceiling.  Duo shivered more violently, trying to fight the damp cold that seeped into his bones.  "You're cold," she stated.  She visibly hesitated for a moment before continuing, "Together, we'd be warmer."

Duo thought about it.  Sitting next to a vamp and being warm…or sitting alone and getting hypothermia?  Well, with the first choice, he'd at least have a chance of her not killing him.  He didn't think hypothermia was so generous.  He got up from the floor and walked over, sitting with his back against the wall next to her.  

She didn't move to warm him, figuring any advance might be seen as a threat.  So she stayed where she was with her back against the wall and her arms around her legs as she set her chin on her knees.  "What's your name?" she asked.

She seemed more and more human the longer Duo looked at her.  Maybe she had a chance of undergoing that strange transition thing that Trowa had wanted to perform on Chang back when he'd first been captured.  "Duo," he said.  "Duo Maxwell."

"And you're a Night Hunter?"

"Yes."

"I've seen you and your friends before.  Many times.  We both hunt Chang," she said, her voice slightly muffled by the fabric of her pants.  "Why do you hunt him?  And why did he not kill you?"

"He used to be one of us.  This tattoo," Duo said, shoving his sleeve up to show part of the tail again, "was his design.  All of his fellow slayers got it, proving they were friends in combat for life.  Chang wants to use me to draw Heero and Trowa out of hiding.  They hunt him, specifically."  Duo didn't know why he was telling her this.  She just seemed…seemed easy to talk to.  If that were possible.

"Heero and Trowa?"  

Duo yawned.  It must be closer to dawn than he thought if he was already getting tired.  Like the vampires, he and his fellow slayers slept during the day and hunted at night.  But they hunted vampires instead of innocent human beings.  "They were friends with Wufei during the war.  All soldiers together…" he yawned again, not noticing that he'd slumped down on the wall and put his head on her shoulder.  

*******

The loud clang of metal made Duo jump in his sleep.  The gate of the cell had been thrown open and that same teasing vamp from earlier stood in the cell, looking down at him.  Fear caused the adrenaline to rush through his body, giving him the speed and strength to scramble quickly to the far side of the cell again.  As far away from vampires as he could get.  

He looked at the girl vamp.  Funny, he'd never learned her name.  And he sure as hell didn't remember falling asleep.  She had her eyes shut and he could see her mouth moving as her soft voice reached his straining ears.  She was chanting something.  Chanting something in a language that Duo didn't understand.

The intruding vamp walked further into the cell, holding out something long in his hands.  Duo recognized it as his katana, an instant before the vamp let go of the sheathed sword and dropped it to the ground.  Duo's eyes went wide again as he stared.  The vamp dropped to his knees, laying his head back before the girl vampire, offering his neck.  She stopped speaking and opened her eyes, standing up from her place on the floor.  With achingly slow movements, she stepped forward and leaned down, her mouth getting wider as she brought her lips back and exposed her long canines.  

Voices shouted from down the hall and both she and Duo snapped to attention.  With a frustrated growl she pulled Duo's sword from it's sheath and slit the neck of the vamp on the floor.  

"Come on," she snarled in Duo's direction.  "They've noticed your weapon is missing.  I'm sure they've figured out what happened.  We need to leave this place."  She stepped forward, holding Duo's katana in both outstretched hands, meaning it to be a peace offering.  He came to her slowly, reaching out and grabbing a hold of his weapon.  Instantly, he regretted his trust as her hand clamped down around his wrist, keeping him from being able to run back to the corner.

But she didn't want to return to the corner.  Duo gasped and fought to keep his feet from tripping as she rushed out of the open gate, down the hallway to the door at the end.  She was pulling Duo behind her as she ran, not giving him a chance to argue against it.  Then he heard them.  The snarls coming from behind as two vamps gave chase.  The door at the end of the hallway was flung against the wall as they darted inside, meeting the spiral staircase.

The staircase was also something out of a dream, Duo noted.  The stone steps twisted around a central column in the large tower, but there was no railing on the stairs.  Only a big empty space between the outside edge of the stair and the wall.  One could easily fall to their death from the third or fourth floor.  He was aware of her changing her grip on his wrist, but didn't catch what she was doing until she had both his arms wrapped around her neck from behind.  Duo didn't understand.  It was like she wanted to carry him on her back.  

"Get on my back!" she said, yelling because of her own adrenaline rush and the sight of blood but a few minutes ago.  She was so hungry, but she ignored the pain for now.  A little hop from the person behind her warned her that he was about to jump up and wrap his legs around her waist.  Once Duo was settled, she didn't bother to tell him to hang on.  She only concentrated on the next task at hand.

Duo gasped as something beneath his stomach moved.  He looked down between his body and hers to see wings appearing to grow from between her shoulder blades, appearing through tears in the back of her shirt.  He shook his head and closed his eyes, wanting to wake up from this nightmare.  But when he reopened his eyes, large skin-covered wings existed from her back, flexing slightly to either side of him.  Duo tightened his grip as they flapped once or twice before they were lifted off the ground, soaring up around the space outside the staircase.  

They made for the ceiling.  Knowing it was probably simply a shingle roof, she could plow right through it.  She tried to ignore the snarling yells from their pursuers as they ascended the stairs.  She held one hand on Duo's arms wrapped around her throat.  Flying with someone on your back was tiring, and she wasn't sure how long she could last without having eaten for a week.  The taste of the idiot who'd been close enough to get caught wasn't enough to quench the thirst that pulled on her.  She'd have to be careful until she got a full meal. 

Wings just didn't exist, Duo told himself.  They really didn't.  Only fairytales told of Pureblood vampires who'd been graced with the ability to sprout wings.  But the Purebloods were dead, and this was simply not happening.  It couldn't be.  He ducked his head down as they got closer to the ceiling.  

Bright daylight streamed down into the tower as they burst through the roof.  Duo looked behind them, seeing the two pursuing vamps turn to paper-like ash as they died with contact to the sun's rays.  He stopped, gripping firmer to her neck.  She was alive.  She was a vampire.  She had wings.  She was a daywalker.  Things just didn't make sense.  Nothing made sense.  She'd saved his life.  She'd eaten her own kind.  She was…was…just not real.  

She faltered in her flight as she felt the human on her back go limp.  Carefully landing in a darkened alleyway of the city so as not to be seen, she pulled the man off her back and set him on the ground.  He was more of a boy than a man, she noted.  And he looked about the human age of 18 or 19.  His long rich brown hair was neatly braided down his back and reached his waist.  Her back ached suddenly, bringing her back to the here and now.  Flying always hurt her back if she hadn't done it in a while.  Six days and nights counted as "a while" in her book.  She knew she had to get back to her master.  She knew he would be worried and searching for her.  But she had to take care of the human in front of her.  

She knew where he lived.  She had followed his group home once before she'd been captured.  And now she was glad to have spied on them.  Taking his unconscious body in her arms, she made her way through the streets to the basement they claimed as living quarters.


	3. Breaking Chains

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.**

Chapter Two 

Trowa sat on the rough couch in their basement.  He refused to call it an apartment.  The basement did have several rooms though, and it was warm enough so he didn't complain out loud.  But he absolutely refused to call this dump a home.  

He looked down.  Normally, any guy would be more than thrilled to have two girls in his lap.  But right now, Trowa wasn't too thrilled.  Roddy lay to his right, stretching her petite body out on the couch and resting her legs on the armrest.  She used one of his legs as a pillow, but she didn't sleep.  Instead, her hazel eyes were open, staring straight up at him.  He gave a little smile and ran his hand through her dark brown hair.  He knew that neither of them could sleep unless the other was lying next to them.  So he wasn't surprised that Roddy was still awake.

Hilde shifted on his left, curling herself into a tighter ball.  She was using his other leg as a pillow and sleeping fitfully for the time being.  Duo's disappearance last night was disturbing, and Hilde was out of her mind with worry.  Heero had to threaten to hit her on the back of the head to knock her unconscious, just to get the poor girl to try to sleep for a while.  Finally, she'd decided to lay down on the couch.  She shivered slightly, and Catherine appeared from somewhere behind him to put a blanket over Hilde's sleeping form.

"Thank you," he mouthed softly at his sister.  She smiled sadly back, knowing that the longer Duo was out there, the less chance they had of finding him alive.  Or finding him as a human.  She took the coffee cup in her hands to Heero, who was constantly pacing all over the basement.  He accepted the black coffee with a nod and downed it all in one gulp, handing the mug back to Cathy when he had finished.  

Heero paced another round between the door and the back wall when he sighed in frustration, grabbed his shortened broadsword and headed to the door.  He was tired of this waiting shit.  Duo'd been their companion for the last three years.  He'd be damned if he'd allow Duo to suffer in Wufei's clutches.  Heero threw open the door, letting the brightness of mid-morning to stream into the basement.  He stopped.

There, on the stairs leading down to their door, a vamp was waiting for him.  He didn't question how she'd gotten there.  He didn't question how she was able to live in the daylight.  And he didn't question why she seemed so out of breath as she leaned against the wall.  He only saw an unconscious Duo in her arms.  And Heero attacked her.

Keeping one arm around Duo, to prevent him from falling down the stairs, she was barely able to fend off the human who flew at her with sword drawn.  Her one free hand clasped onto her attacker's, wrapping around his hands and the hilt of his sword to keep him from being able to cut off her head in one swipe.  But she was losing both battles.  The man in front of her was strong with rage as he sought to protect his comrade, his blade inching closer and closer to her neck.  And Duo was steadily slipping from her other hand, in danger of tumbling down the stairs and becoming injured.  

"Please," she found herself pleading.  "He's going to fall…"

Dark blue eyes blinked at her a moment, as if trying to register what words she'd just spoken.  Her attacker glanced down, seeing how desperately she clutched to Duo to keep him from falling.  Another man came up from behind her attacker, placing a hand on his shoulder.  Her attacker relaxed visibly and stepped aside, but kept his sword near her neck.  The green-eyed man bent down and took Duo into his arms, carrying him down the stairs and into the basement.  A dark woman met him at the doorway, fussing over the long-haired man in his arms.

But the blue-eyed Asian continued to hold her hostage, grabbing her arm roughly and pulling her down the stairs.  A thin auburn-haired woman closed the door to the basement, locking several different locks along the doorframe.  The woman walked over to a sleeping ball on the couch, resting her hand on it and shaking gently.

"Hilde," the woman called softly.  "Hilde, Duo's home."  The girl on the couch sprang up from her sleep, ice-blue eyes wide.

"Really?  Duo!"  And with that, the girl ran through a doorway to another room.  The tall green-eyed man had just disappeared through that door, while the dark woman retrieved some food and water from the kitchen.  No one seemed to notice the blue-eyed man holding his sword to a woman vampire's neck.

He glared at her as he held her prisoner.  No doubt, if the man she'd saved from the dungeon died, he'd kill her.  All three women of the group remained in that room, but the green-eyed man walked out, coming to question her.

"Who are you?" he asked, his soft voice contradicting the strength of his eyes and body.  

She bowed her head slightly.  "A friend."  

"Who are you?" he asked again.

"I do not remember my birth-name," she said.  "But I was given the name Jinakel from my master."  She hoped that would be enough to satisfy his question.  A thought struck her.  Duo had said some names before he'd fallen asleep in the dungeon.  "Are either of you Heero or Trowa?" she asked.

The man behind her stiffened, bringing the sword closer to her neck and pressing it to her soft skin.  The green-eyed man in front of her looked visibly surprised for a moment before he answered…

"I'm Trowa.  Who told you our names?"

"Duo did," she answered, hoping that Duo had given her his true name.  "Before he fell asleep in the dungeon."  Jinakel had no idea how much to tell these men.  But if she had to retell her entire captivity to get them to trust her, she would.

"Jinakel," Trowa said, getting her attention.  "What dungeon?"

"Chang's."

The man behind her tensed again, obviously upset.  Trowa, too, seemed angry with her.  She'd said something wrong.

"Forgive me," Jinakel said, bowing her head to show her submission.  Not making eye contact, she continued, "I have said something to displease you.  I do know of your relation to the vampire Chang, for Duo spoke of it while we waited the chance to escape.  Forgive me for saying something to upset you both."

Trowa's eyes softened and he smiled at her slightly.  "You have not angered us.  The knowledge that our dear friend had been captured and held in a dungeon is what disturbs us, Jinakel.  Now, tell me.  What were you doing there?  And why did you help our friend escape?"

"May I see him?" she asked, looking up shyly to his green eyes.  "I wish to know if I can help his condition.  If he is weary, I might be able to help."

Trowa looked over her shoulder, obviously conferring silently with the man behind her.  He was still holding the sword to her throat, but it was a more relaxed grip now, thankfully.  With a nod, Trowa led the way to the door.  

Duo was sitting up on his bed, the girl Hilde curled up beside him and smiling with joy at her love's return.  The auburn-haired girl was cleaning up the dishes.  Duo had obviously just finished eating everything that had been brought to him.  The dark woman was busy checking his body, making sure no wounds needed tending.  

Jinakel heard her say, "You're remarkably unscathed, Duo…" before Duo saw them at the door.

"NO!!" he yelled, sitting up in bed stiffly.  "No, don't you dare!"

The man behind her tensed again, bringing the sword swiftly against her neck and pressing the blade hard to her.  She bit back the urge to cry out at the sharp edge against her skin.  Trowa moved in front of her, blocking her way to Duo.  Duo's negative reaction to her made him grab her arm roughly, keeping her from hurting anyone or trying to escape.

"No, you idiots!" Duo said from behind Trowa, swinging his legs over and getting out of bed.  "She saved my life…" he walked closer and pulled Trowa away from her, "…Leave her alone."  

The man behind her didn't move.  Duo stared at him for a moment, before reaching up and tugging the sword away from her neck. 

"Heero, let her go," Duo said, his voice soft as his eyes held multiple apologies for her.  

The man behind her conceded, lowering his sword from her neck.  Jinakel hadn't realized how dependent she'd been on the men around her, until their support was withdrawn.  She fell to her knees on the floor, weariness overtaking her body.

"What's wrong?"  She found Duo's face and bright violet eyes staring at her.

"Tired."  Jinakel struggled and finally stood up.  "I haven't slept in six nights and…"

"Five and a half days," Duo interrupted.  "I didn't realize that you hadn't rested the whole time you'd been captive."

"I could not sleep.  As long as I am awake and able to fight, they can not take me."  Jinakel wobbled again before Duo caught her.  

"Take you?" he asked.

"Since I have betrayed the decree, others are able to punish my insolence.  My blood will give them more power than they could ever dream of…" her words were starting to get softer and slur as her exhaustion took over.  She was aware of arms wrapping around her and carrying her to a nearby soft mattress, but she never opened her eyes.

*******

She heard them coming.  Jinakel snapped awake, looking for the enemies she knew was there.  She could hear them snarling outside.  She could hear them feeding on a few innocent humans who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  The man with the blue eyes was there, standing by her bed and watching over her as she slept.  But she couldn't sleep now.  The humans didn't have the extra senses she had.  She could hear them snarl.  She could smell the blood.  

He reached forward, trying to keep her from leaving the bed.  But this human, no matter how great his skills, couldn't hear the vamps outside their home.  Right outside.  She panicked, grabbing the sword from his hand and charging for the door.  The green-eyed man was there.  Trowa?  She couldn't remember his exact name.  Not that it mattered right now.  And the women were there.  Where was Duo?  Outside perhaps.  Dead already.

The man with blue eyes…what was his name again?…he followed her out of the bedroom, demanding to know what she was doing.  He wanted his sword back.  Of course, a human warrior would not, could not ever trust a vampire.  Her heart hurt, seeing his angry face and the hatred in his deep blue eyes.  Something about him called to her…something…foreign… 

The snarls outside were closer, and the smell of innocents' blood stronger than before.  Chang's vamps had found them.  Somehow, they'd been found.  Perhaps they'd followed her after her escape.  With Duo.  They had to have followed her, but how?  Human pets, most likely.  Or maybe they picked up their scent trail, but that was unlikely.  Unless they had a self-eater with them.  She shuddered at the thought.  Chang had wanted to turn her into one.  He had wanted to starve her for so long that she resorted to drinking her own blood and becoming one of those…those…demon beasts.  

Duo.  Where was he?  The man with blue eyes stared at her, hurting her with his distrust.  Why did it matter that he didn't trust her?  No other humans ever had.  Why did this one hurt her so?  Duo.  She breathed his name, looking around the basement for him.  Trowa said something to her.  She didn't catch the words in her panic, but she realized what he had told her.  Duo was outside.  

Outside with Chang's vamps hunting them down.  She ran for the door, the smell of blood filling her lust and driving her to strength she couldn't achieve alone.  Using her shoulder, she rammed the steel door, tearing it at the hinges and throwing it to the ground.

Duo.  Chang's vamps had found him, all right.  They held each of his arms, and the shirt was torn from his body, exposing the intricate and beautiful winged dragon tattoo that was a symbol of his group of slayers.  The Night Hunters, she knew they called themselves.  The tattoo's tail started at his forearm, winding around his arm and up to his shoulder, where the fiery teeth of the dragon were bared.  And another tattoo graced his beautiful body, just above the head of the dragon.  In Japanese characters it said "Shinigami."  The God of Death, she registered, remembering from when she'd lived with her master in Japan for some time.  The God of Death.

And they were eating him.  She roared.  Not some little snarl or menacing growl, but a full out roar from the depths of her being.  Lunging toward the vamps, she used the borrowed sword to bring swift justice.  Within a flash of an eye, she'd slaughtered the six vamps sent after her and the humans.  They lay on the steps, gurgling and gasping as their blood flowed freely in little waterfalls to her feet.  The man with the blue eyes was there.  Horror on his face as he watched her, disgusted by her cruel tactics of eliminating the enemy.  Was she not good enough?  Was she not…humane?

Duo moaned from where he lay on the steps.  They'd dropped him when she attacked, leaving him half-eaten and allowing him instead to bleed to death.  Why should she care?  Of course, she never killed humans unless…well, she'd only killed humans on one occasion.  And those slayers had come after her master.  Protecting him was foremost in her life, and she'd forsake all morals and needs in order to save his life.  But this human, his eyes, he pleaded for something.  Duo wanted to live.  

Quickly she moved to his side, holding him in her arms on those steps.  Those blood-soaked steps.  The bodies of the vamps disappeared from around them, vaporizing as the last trickles of blood left their severed veins.  She paid them no mind, focusing only on Duo.  Why did this human call her so?  She knew.  He had trusted her.  He was the only human she'd ever come across who had trusted her to save his life.  Duo was not afraid to sleep next to her in the dungeon.  He had stood up for her in front of his allies, saving her from a mistaken execution.  This human with the strange violet eyes had believed in her, when no other mortal had.

She looked down upon him, pressing her hand to his neck and trying to stop the bleeding.  It was useless, she knew.  Enzymes in vamp saliva inhibited the body's platelets, making it impossible for blood to clot.  But screw science.  Duo was dying.  And there was only one way to save him.  Would he want to?  Of course, anyone faced with living or dying chooses the living road.  Only later do they realize that their new "life" is more like a state of undead.  A miserable existence that simply will not end.  Could she do that to him?  This beautiful human who had shown her kindness…should she turn him into one of the creatures he hunted?  It would save his life, but was it worth the price he'd pay?  She had never turned a human before.  Never cursed a blessed human with the life of a vampire…but this human, Duo, deserved to live.  


	4. Blood Rain

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.**

Chapter Three 

Jinakel's eyes snapped open and she sat up in bed.  Breathing heavily, she glanced around at the room.  She knew it had been a nightmare.  But it was so real.  Her dreams always did seem so real like that.  Shaking her head, Jinakel tried to rattle that bad dream out of her mind.  She moaned at her resulting headache.  She always felt shitty like this when she was hungry.

"Are you feeling better?" 

Her eyes found the figure leaning in the doorway.  Tall, strange hair, green eyes.  Gigantic broadsword at his side.  "Trowa?" she asked, not sure if that was his name.

"Yes?  Are you feeling any better?" he replied.  So Trowa was his name.  Good.  At least she got something right.  Better answer his question.

"I'm hungry."  Well, that was the truth.  Sure, the word hungry from a vampire meant they craved the blood of a living being, but she was willing to let that fact go unnoticed.  Speaking of hungry, she'd only be able to eat if she could hunt.  And hunting season started every night when the vamps came out to play.  "What time is it?"

"Late."  

Must be a man of little words, she decided.  Rubbing her head some, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and got unsteadily to her feet.  How long has it been since she'd had a decent meal?  Six nights and six days?  She couldn't remember anymore.  The craving to satisfy her own demanding hunger made her head swim, and she lost her concentration easily.  All of her senses were heightened, she knew.  The Bloodlust did that.  

"Where are the others?" she managed to say.  Even forming a complete sentence was difficult.  As much as she didn't want to, she found herself wondering what Trowa's blood would taste like.  No, that was wrong.  Don't eat humans, don't eat humans, don't eat humans.  

"Out."

Oh, this was a joy.  

"Let's go then," Jinakel said, walking toward him.  Don't eat the blood of humans, she reminded herself as she got closer to him.

"You don't look so good," he said, stunning her by speaking.  

He shifted uncomfortably as she stared at him.  It took her a while to process the words she'd just heard.  Looking good?  She didn't?  What was he talking about?  Oh, she didn't look good.  Got it.  

"I already said I wanted blood," she hissed at him, getting irritated by the everlasting nagging urge to eat.  He stepped back, obviously on guard.  What did she just say?  Oh, something about blood.  Oops.  "Sorry," Jinakel mumbled.  "Irritable when I haven't had food in days."

The man lightened up a little, though he still seemed incredibly wary of her.  "Understandable," he said.  Trowa led her out of the basement and into the cold night air.  

*******

The blonde vamp in front of them cowered into the dark recesses of the alleyway.  Heero almost laughed at how scared the little guy looked.  Must be faking, he reasoned, becoming more wary as he approached, his short sword held in front of him.  The vamp looked about their age and seemed very small and meek.  But appearances could be deceiving.  This one had approached him, saying something about Gin or whatever.  

Duo was backing him up, keeping the vamp cornered.  Even the little meek ones could lash out like something ferocious when they felt trapped.  Hilde and Roddy were further back in the alley with Cathy.  The girls didn't do much hunting, but mostly helped in keeping the group of boys from looking too suspicious to the police.  And vamps.  He could hear Roddy say something.  Trowa answered.  He must have just arrived.  Trowa would help apprehend the little shaking vamp hiding behind the dumpster.  

Growling in his ear made him stop short, halting his slow approach to the vampire in front of him.  Now he had a vampire behind him.  Just peachy.  He straightened slowly, bringing the sword down.  Further behind him, he could hear Duo telling the others to remain calm.  Even with the crazy bitch snarling in his ear, Duo believed that she wouldn't hurt him.  Bullshit.

"Don't touch him," she warned, her breath warm against the back of his neck.  St. Petersburg nights were chilly this time of year, and he could see the remnants of the fog his breath made as he tried to breathe easy.  And breathing easy was a hard thing to do when a vamp was a foot away, behind you.  

Heero nodded.  He didn't quite trust his voice enough to answer out loud.  Even the great Heero Yuy was a little unnerved and scared, yes scared, with this feral demon behind him.  

"Come out," Jinakel called to the figure hiding in the dark.  Slowly, the vamp emerged, looking encouraged by her.  He smiled, completely blowing Heero's mind.  The blonde demon looked, well, looked normal.  Like any other person his age.  Golden locks accentuated his fair features and bright blue-green eyes.  Innocent looking eyes.  Strange.  Only his elongated canines labeled him as a vampire.  In all other ways, he seemed human. 

"Jina?" he asked, stepping a little further out of the darkness.  Heero didn't even have time to react before the blonde vamp ran past him and into the she-vampire's arms.  Jina?  Oh, right.  Her name was Jinakel.  Jina was obviously a nickname.  Oddly enough, Jinakel was hugging the frail-looking blonde vampire.  

With a screeching roar, the blonde was thrown across the alley.  Heero and his fellow slayers flinched and took a step back, surprised at the loud sound.  Confused, Heero looked around.  Duo and Trowa were in front of the girls, swords drawn and ready to defend at any moment.  The blonde vamp was hurt-looking and sniffing softly as he remained against the wall.  Jinakel was on her knees in the dirty alley, holding her head in her hands as she snarled.  Now he was really confused.

The blonde's head popped up, searching for something off to his right, deeper in the dark and twisting alleyway.  Jinakel's head too, was raised in that direction.  Her lips curled back into a menacing growl.  Looking more like a beast than a humanoid form, she eased forward, ignoring Heero's body in her way.  Then he saw them.  More vamps.  

"In too deep, traitor?" one hissed, trying to tease Jinakel.  Heero doubted that the girl was that easily swayed and taken advantage of.  Those vamps would have to try a lot harder to manipulate her with words.  Wait a minute.  He was on her side?  Since when?

"You can't even speak, can you?" another one said.  Can't speak?  What the hell were these idiots talking about?  Heero'd heard her speak before.  Why couldn't she now?  More stepped out of the shadows, revealing many more of Chang's underlings.  About fifteen to be exact.  Great.  They were grossly outnumbered, even with a she-vamp on their side.

Something brushed his back.  Heero spun around quickly, ready to strike any foe.  Instead of an enemy, Heero came face to "face" with a wing.  Jinakel's wings spread ominously from her back, making her seem more powerful and terrible than she did on a normal basis.  Duo had warned him about the whole sprouting wings thing, but it was still hard to believe.  She was standing side-by-side with him, still snarling at the vamps ahead.  Heero glanced around her at the blonde, well, as well as he could glance with big gigantic wings in his way.  The other vamp was gone.  Worry about that another time, Yuy, he told himself.  Your enemy is in front of you.

Without warning, Jinakel rushed the group.  They scattered like ants, pushing each other to get out of her way.  One dived to the ground, covering his head with his hands like a scared child.  Another one wasn't so lucky to escape her grasp, and the vamp was carried high into the air, shrieking the entire way until the distance between him and the earth caused his voice to dissipate in the wind.  Looking up, Heero saw a body drop as Jinakel remained hovering in the air.  The vamp's body vanished before he came in contact with any buildings or the ground.  They did that, he knew.  Vampire bodies disappeared when they died.  She'd killed it.

Within seconds, tiny droplets of blood splattered around them in the alley, proof of Jinakel's recent hunt.  Heero frowned at the small red stains on his arms and hands.  But he soon diverted his attention to the group of vamps.  They snarled at the blood of their comrade and ran forward, meaning to kill Heero and his Night Hunters.  

Heero's blade flashed in the night as he brought it to bear against the blade of Chang's underling.  They rushed him, overpowering him quickly.  But Trowa and Duo were not far away, thinning the force of enemies around Heero.  Even Roddy and Hilde participated in fighting a few of the vamps on the fringe of the main battle.  He felled one vamp, not caring that the body didn't disappear right away.  It would soon.  Turning his attention to another, he thrust his blade through its stomach.  To his right, he saw approaching teeth of another vamp.  

He felt the push of air before he caught sight of her.  Jinakel plummeted to the ground, landing hard on the approaching enemy who threatened Heero's well-being.  Wrapping her hand around its neck, she took off into the air.  The tell-tale blood splattering proved she'd just killed another vamp.  

And another.  And another.  Heero lost count of the times small blood splattered on them from above.  Jinakel was certainly earning her keep, and earning Heero's respect.

Catherine screamed, pulling her blade out as quickly as she could.  The others were busy, Heero knew.  Trowa would no doubt attempt to protect her, but at the moment he was more than occupied while fighting off two separate vamps, two more lying at his feet as they slowly bled to death.  Duo, too, had his hands full as he and Hilde fought back to back, keeping a small ring of vamps at bay.  Roddy, of course, could hold her own and was currently decapitating an angry-looking long-haired vamp.  Catherine needed help.  And Heero was too far away to get to her in time, he feared.

Again, Jinakel dropped down from the sky, landing near Catherine and her attacker.  This time, though, the vamp had been ready and held his sword out to her as she swooped down upon him.  He swung his blade at her, missing terribly as she moved swiftly to the side.  With lightning speed, she grasped his hand and forced the blade through his own stomach.  The vamp coughed up blood before Jinakel took to flight again, using the sword as a skewer to hold the dying vamp.  Correction, dead vamp, Heero thought as more blood rained down on them from above.  

So much blood was bound to draw attention.  As the last of the original group of attacking vamps fell to the ground and vanished, more vamps appeared from the dark recesses of the alleyway.  More vamps than Heero could count.  Jinakel landed in front of him, retracting her wings into her back so that they disappeared completely.  She stood silent and still, awaiting whatever threat was going to appear.  

Heero hadn't expected to see Wufei.  But there he was, grinning and showing off those damned incisors.  He growled.  Or was that Jinakel?  It didn't matter who made the sound.  Heero just knew that he was pissed.

"I see you've killed my search party," Wufei said, directing his attention only to Jinakel. 

She only snarled in return.

"Still in too deep?" Wufei asked.  "Can't quite control your urges enough to speak, can you?  Your resistance to the Bloodlust is commendable, but even you, Daywalker, will succumb to the primal temptations pulling at you.  Ever wonder how delicious those human friends of yours are?"  Chang took a few steps forward, seeing that Jinakel was not opening her mouth to retort.  "That one with the long hair, who you escaped with.  He seems very sweet.  Or perhaps you like someone with a little more kick to them.  Someone more like Heero here…"

She snarled louder, obviously upset at the implication that she'd eat Heero or Duo.  

"You've won this round, Daywalker.  I'll not pursue you or your Pureblood tonight.  Dawn draws near.  Not all of us have the pleasure of strolling through the sunlight like you."  Chang gave a stiff bow and stepped back, vanishing again into the darkness of the alley.  

Catherine, Roddy, Hilde, Duo, and the blonde vampire, who appeared again out of nowhere, were already out of the alley and in the street by the time Heero, Trowa, and Jinakel made their way into the glow of the streetlights.  Though Wufei had promised not to come after them again tonight, staying in the light made them all feel a little safer than the darkness of the alleyway.  

For the first time, Heero could see the bloodstains on Jinakel's body and clothes.  Though she wore black, the red tint of much blood could be seen in the yellow glow of the streetlight.  And her chin and neck ran with blood.  Others' blood.  She had fed well tonight.  The little blonde stepped forward, hesitatingly sticking out his tongue and lightly licking the blood from Jinakel's jaw line.  The sight was strangely erotic, seeing one vamp lick blood from the body of another.  But the sensuality of the moment broke quickly as Jinakel smoothly lowered her head, baring her teeth as if to bite the blonde's neck.  Her hand was planted firmly on his chest, and with a quick shove, she sent him flailing backwards into Catherine.  

"Stay away," she snarled at him.  Her eyes became clearer as she spoke, as if she were waking up from a dream.  

The blonde, after apologizing to Cathy and getting back on his feet, timidly stepped forward.  "Jina, are you normal now?"

She blinked.  "Forgive me, Master," Jinakel breathed, dropping to her knees and touching her head to the ground in front of him.  She trembled slightly.  Now Heero was even more confused about their relationship.  Before they'd seemed like friends, then Jinakel wanted to eat him, and now she was calling him "master"?  Who was this blonde guy?

"I'm Quatre," the blonde said, offering a smile to the stunned slayers that surround him.  Heero saw him put a hand on Jinakel's bent back, giving her some comfort.  "I am pleased to meet any friends of my dear Jina's.  I've been worried sick; she's been missing for days.  Please, allow me to offer you some hospitality.  It's the least I can do for all of your assistance."  The vampire, now known as Quatre, spoke with dignity and a royal air.  But trust him?  Heero wasn't too sure about that.  

He looked around to his comrades.  Trowa looked doubtful.  As did Roddy, but she didn't have quite the scowl on her face that Trowa had.  Duo, of course, trusted the vampire completely.  That was no surprise to Heero.  Since his breakout with Jinakel, Duo'd been more than willing to make friends with the enemy.  Hilde was simply watching Heero, trusting him completely to make the right decision.  Catherine looked…like she _liked_ this vamp.  She definitely wanted to go with him to his home.  

"Please," Quatre repeated.  "Please, make a decision soon.  Unlike my friend here, I cannot survive in the daylight.  We must leave soon if we are to make it to my home.  I…" he looked suddenly timid again.  "I will not hurt any of you," Quatre said in a small voice.  

"I say we go," Duo said out loud.  Fine, if they wanted to go, they'd go.  

"Fine," Heero answered for the group.  

Quatre got down on his knees in front of Jinakel.  "Jina?  Are you better?"

She shook her head.  "No."

"I will have to go without you."  Quatre cast a worried glance up into the night sky.  "I cannot wait for you to regain yourself.  Hurry home," he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead.  With a pleasant smile on his face, Quatre addressed the group of slayers.  "This way," he said, leading the way through the dirty streets of St. Petersburg toward his castle.  


	5. Meet the Master

**DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.**

Chapter Four 

The vampire Quatre's castle could hardly be called a castle.  It was more like a large house.  But in the world of the vampires, any dwelling was automatically called a castle.  The old house had two stories: a living area and kitchen on the first floor, and four bedrooms on the second floor.  The slayers remained in the hardwood entryway, too unsure to just walk into a vampire's abode, no matter how pleasant he'd been on the walk here.

Quatre picked up on their uneasiness right away.  When Jina had arrived in the alley, it seemed as if these humans didn't even trust her.  How were they going to trust him when they'd just met him?  

"Please," he said, using that word yet again.  "Please, come in a make yourselves comfortable.  Jina will not be able to join us for some time.  She's still fighting herself.  Daylight will help her though.  She only needs time."

This perked the longhaired slayer's attention.  "Time for what?  What exactly was going on with Jinakel and why did she try to eat you twice and what was Chang talking about lust or something and why couldn't she talk and why did you leave her back there, and…where the hell is Heero?"  The braided slayer had to stop in his endless slough of questions in order to take a breath.  "I thought he was right behind us."  In alarm, all of the slayers looked around, seeing if their serious friend was lurking in a shadow somewhere.

"He didn't come," Quatre said, confused as to how they missed their friend's disappearance.  "Heero?  Was that his name?  He stayed behind when we left to come here."  He smiled a friendly smile, trying to get them to ease.  The tall girl with reddish brown hair smiled back.  Quatre glanced away before he blushed too noticeably.  

"Why would Heero stay behind and what is he doing…" the braided slayer's next stream of questions was cut short when the petite girl with black hair clamped her hand over his mouth.  

"You'll have to excuse Duo.  He tends to talk a lot," she said with a smile.  "And I'm Hilde, by the way.  This is Trowa, his sister Catherine, and Roddy.  We all work together."  Quatre nodded and smiled at each person Hilde indicated, careful not to look Catherine in the eyes.  She seemed to make his knees weak for some reason.  

"It is nice to meet you all," Quatre said with a graceful bow.  "I am Quatre Raberba Winner.  And this is my home.  You are all more than welcome to stay for as long as you like."  He smiled at Hilde.  "And I don't mind if Duo talks a lot.  I'd enjoy the company.  Jina's not exactly the greatest conversationalist, she has to be in the right mood to be personable…and speaking of Jina.  I suppose you all have some questions you'd like answered.  Come, we'll talk in the den."  Quatre led them out of the foyer and into the comfortable den.  Jina liked the big couches and cushy recliner.  Quatre preferred the wing-backed chair near the fireplace.  He noted his guest's glances around the room.  They must have noticed by now that the house has no windows, despite the closed shutters on the outside of the house.  Those were only for decoration, and to make the house seem more ordinary to those who passed by.  

Duo, surprise, was the first to ask a question.  "What is wrong with Jinakel?"

"Please, call her Jina.  She does not prefer the entire name of Jinakel.  And she is fighting against her own vampire urges right now.  I assume that she hasn't eaten in six days, since the morning she neglected to come home.  And so the made-vampires undergo what they refer to as "Bloodlust," which heightens her cravings for blood.  It can be so powerful as to drive a vampire to eat its own blood.  That creates a whole other problem though.  In Jina's case, she is very strong.  She can resist the lust and become normal soon.  That is why she almost ate me twice.  I am a vampire, of course, and that is the blood she craves.  Next question."  Quatre smiled, happy to be telling someone of all he knew.  He was a talkative fellow, but with Jina as his only company, he'd not had the opportunity to talk like this in a few hundred years.

"She ate.  Why does she still suffer?"  Quatre looked at the other couch, seeing the man who spoke sitting between the lovely Catherine and the dark girl named…Roddy?  Yes, it was Roddy.  And his name was Trowa.  

Quatre's brow knitted as he thought.  "Hmm…In a crude description, she needs to eat regularly and often.  After being starved for a week and then gorging herself on eight tonight, she's only made her lust more severe.  By allowing herself to indulge so completely, she's made it worse because the more she has – the more she wants.  She'll come out of it soon and settle back into a normal feeding cycle.  Next question?"

"What's your story?" Roddy asked.  "How do you two know each other and why does she call you Master?"

"Because I am."  Quatre looked down at the floor when he said that.  The cheer left his face and voice.  He didn't like remembering his past.  "For three hundred years, Jina and I have lived alone in this world.  She was made two hundred years before that, by my mother in preparation for my birth.  After slayers killed my family, she saved me and has protected me ever since."  He glanced up and gave a weak smile.  "But this is an unhappy and touchy subject for Jina and I.  And it is getting late.  Please, come upstairs to bed."

Duo got right up and followed Quatre up the stairs.  The rest of the slayers trudged up the stairs as well, but with a little more reserve.  The curving stairway led to a hallway with three doors on one side and one door at the end.  

"My room is at the end of the hall," Quatre said.  "Are three rooms ample for your needs?"

"What about Jina?" Hilde asked.

"She normally uses the room closest to mine, but she would insist on one of you using her bed if she were here.  And I insist as well," Quatre answered, looking at Cathy again.  He couldn't understand why he had to keep looking at her all the time, why she attracted his attention so completely that he forgot what he had wanted to say.  She smiled his direction.

"I'll take Jina's room, if you insist Quatre," Cathy offered.  

Quatre didn't know why he was so elated to hear that Catherine would be sleeping in the room nearest his.  He was just so confused around her.  So instead of speaking something unintelligible, he simply smiled and bowed to his guests, watching them disappear into their rooms.  

*******

She knew he was still there.  Did he think that she wouldn't notice him following her around?  Perhaps he thought that she needed his help, or something equally ridiculous.  Why was he following her?  She was having enough problems controlling her urge to eat blood, and here he was twenty feet away and looking at her with those gorgeous midnight eyes.  Made her urge for something completely different than food.

She hoisted her jacket further onto her shoulder.  Of course, with her winged rampage a few hours ago, she'd had to take off the jacket to avoid ripping it.  Now she walked through the dirty streets of St. Petersburg with the long black coat thrown casually over her shoulder.  Looking up at the sky, she regretted that morning had yet to come.  Vampires could still be out searching for them, risking this close proximity with the dawn to please their Chinese master.  

Snarls in the alleyway caught her attention.  She left the main road and traveled into the darkness between two close buildings.  She had been right.  They were still looking for her.

"Daywalker," one hissed.  "Your blood will please our master."

"We have you outnumbered, traitor.  Your human slayers aren't here to defend you," another one said, stepping closer to her.

"Your sympathy for those lower on the food chain will be your undoing," yet another vamp said from behind her.  Great, now she was surrounded.  And where did Heero go?  

"You are lower on the food chain," she growled, unable to keep quiet during their taunting.  "I eat fools like you."  Jinakel tensed, dropping her coat to the ground as she faced her opponents.  Turning in a slow circle, she assessed her situation.  

Five vamps, all pretty haggard and low on the Chang totem pole by the looks of their disheveled clothes and dirty faces.  They probably didn't live in Chang's castle, but instead lived in the streets.  Perhaps they'd been cast out of the castle for some offence, or perhaps they were just silly humans who'd been turned to demons and left to rot for Chang's amusement.  They were skinny and more pale than normal, with dark hollows under their eyes.  Yes, bringing her to Chang's gate would give them a large reward, a reward that they were desperate to obtain.

"We aren't the fools, daywalker.  You're the one alone in the streets.  And we're the ones who will give you your penance."  As the dark-blonde one spoke, a human girl was brought from the shadows, fear etched on her face as the captor vamp's hand closed around her throat.  "If you want to save the vermin, then come with us."

"To your master's castle?" she asked, disdain more than evident in her voice.  "Give me the girl."

"Only if you eat her."

She growled.  This stupid little battle was gnawing at her nerves and increasing her rage.  She knew that she was an angry person, and these idiotic fools did little to soothe her hatred of vampires.  "Step closer and say that," she challenged.

The idiot did it, coming close and hissing in her ear, "Eat her."

He didn't say much after that, except release a bloodcurdling scream from his mouth as she bit harshly into his neck.  Blood spilled everywhere, running down her chin and onto the ground.  Not bothering to finish her ravaging of his blood, she turned on the others who were shocked into silence.  No one acknowledged the sickening thump of his body dropping to the ground.

"Let her go," Jinakel ordered.  She felt a presence behind her.  Confused as to who it could be, she turned to see Heero watching her with fear and alarm in his eyes.  Blood.  He must be appalled by the blood.  By seeing her eat.  She knew she was disgusting, and it hurt her more to see his revulsion written on his face.

"Let her go," Heero echoed, stepping beside Jinakel with his sword in front of him.

The remaining vampires looked none to pleased with Heero's sudden appearance.  With a quick swipe of the captor's hands, the girl's neck was broken and her body abandoned.  The vamps disappeared.  

"Damn, you Heero," Jinakel said, on her knees beside the dead girl in the alleyway.  

"What?!  Those bastards could have killed you!"

"They killed her, Heero.  They killed her because you came," she said, leaning down to touch her forehead against the girl's.  "I might have been able to save her."

"You couldn't have saved her.  She was just a pawn," he reasoned, coming closer to her and laying a hand on her hunched shoulders.  

"I might have been able to save her."

"I'm sorry," Heero apologized.  "If I had known that you would rather have faced them alone, then I would not have revealed myself."

With a wipe of her hand, Jinakel brushed the tears from her eyes as she stood up suddenly.  She stalked away from the dead girl, and from the confusing Heero.  Why did he even follow her?  Without breaking stride, she reached down and picked up her overcoat, shrugging it onto her shoulders as she left the alley.

She didn't remember the sun coming out.  She didn't remember when the birds had started to sing.  And she didn't remember when the dreary cold St. Petersburg night turned into a bright and hopeful day, but it existed nonetheless.  Jinakel found herself in an open park, a few blocks from where she lived with her master, Quatre.  She came here often during the day when he was asleep, climbing to the top of the big tree near the playground.  It was the only place where she felt alone in this entire city.  

Branches weren't known to be comfortable, but she didn't care.  She never did.  The tree was sanctuary for her.  A place where she was never judged by humans, never hunted by slayers or vampires.  It was a place where she could sit in the crook of a branch with her back against the massive trunk and contemplate anything and everything, or nothing at all.  

At the moment, she contemplated Heero.  The man was confusing, to say the least.  Of course like any human, he was disgusted by her and afraid of her.  Who wouldn't be?  She had become the most powerful of the night creatures.  Drinking the blood of her fellow vampires had given her the combined strength of ten vampires, had given her the Pureblood ability to sprout wings and fly, and had given her the heretofore unheard of gift of daywalking.  Heero had to be afraid of her and repulsed by her.  She had seen it in his eyes when she'd eaten the last vamp.  

A tear fell from her cheek, watering the mighty tree she sat in.  She had tried so hard to keep from feeding in front of the slayers.  During the battle earlier that night, she'd risked much to eat in flight.  And eating on the wing was more difficult than anything she'd ever experienced, threatening to make her plummet to the earth and resulting in her death.  Even a vampire would fall victim to such a plea for the soul.  But she'd done it.  To save her "friends" from being terrified from her, disgusted with her.

To no avail.  Heero, the one she'd cared about more than any of them, saw her anyway.  Wait a minute, care for Heero?  Yes, she had to admit, the man jumped the gun in about every situation, but she couldn't help but admire him.  Something drew her to him.  Something she couldn't explain.  Of course, Duo was wonderful as well.  But she had different feelings toward the braided slayer, the same kind of feelings she had toward her master.  Her emotions toward Heero, however, were completely nauseating.  

Speak of the devil, she saw him.  Not the real devil, but Heero.  He was there, on the empty playground, sitting on top of a set of monkey bars and looking up into her tree.  Looking up at her.  Those deep blue eyes.  Something about them just made her want to kiss him, made her want to give him so much pleasure that he had to close those eyes.  Wait.  What was she thinking?  Pleasuring that stone-cold killer?  No way.  Who was she kidding?  Jinakel is the killer, not Heero.  And she couldn't deny that she cared for him.  But he deserved someone better, someone better than a vampire.


	6. Hunted by Heero

I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Five 

Heero's perch on the monkey bars was uncomfortable, to say the least.  But he wasn't going to leave.  Not while Jinakel was still up in that tree.  There was something about her that…called to him.  He couldn't explain it, but he felt that there was more to her than just a terrible vampire that lived to drain the blood from helpless victims.  One: she wasn't terrible.  In fact, she was quite nice to Duo with the whole escaping thing.  Two: she didn't attack helpless victims.  She attacked other vampires, which throws out the whole "feel sorry for the prey" pity.  Three: she was gorgeous.  

Gorgeous?  Where did that thought come from?  But he couldn't deny his physical attraction to her.  There was something else that drew him to her though.  Something about the way she looked at him with those sorrowful eyes.  Like she never wanted to be a vampire at all.  

But what was he thinking?  He was a slayer.  Heero Yuy, leader of the Night Hunters and awesome slayer of vampires.  She was Jinakel, a vampire.  It didn't take a genius to figure out what was wrong with this relationship.  

Perhaps he was wrong.  She didn't want to be a vampire, and that was more than obvious.  She had helped Duo escape from Wufei's castle.  She had risked her life to bring him home.  She had remained calm when he held his own blade to her neck, mistakenly thinking that she'd hurt Duo.  But now, after all of that and witnessing her destruction of her own kind, Heero was very positive that she would never hurt any of them.  No matter if they threatened her life or not.  It was confusing.  

He'd seen her deep in the throes of what the vamps called Bloodlust.  And all this time he'd thought it was a myth.  And even in her rage for blood, he'd followed her around this godforsaken city, just to make sure she didn't hurt herself or get backed into a corner by someone who'd take advantage of her weakened state.  Except, it'd turned out to not be a weakened state, and she'd been more than able to control herself when confronted with those five goons of Chang's.  He was the one who'd messed it up.

But how was he supposed to know that his presence would unnerve the vamps holding the innocent girl?  How was he to know that he should have just stayed out of sight?  Heero Yuy, you are too eager for your own good, he told himself, looking back up into the tree where Jinakel'd disappeared a while ago.  And to his surprise, her dark eyes were looking back. 

Heero felt his breath catch in his throat.  She was watching him.  Just as he had been watching her.  Could she feel the same way?  No, impossible, he told himself.  Just impossible.  

Jinakel dropped down thirty feet, landing lightly on the grass.  Only a vamp could pull off such a stunt, Heero cursed.  Wait, he should stop thinking of her like that.  Stop thinking of her as just a vamp, and start thinking of her as a real person.  She may be an immortal person, but she was still a person with feelings.  Just like him, no matter how many times he'd tried to deny those feelings.  

"Are you alright?" he found himself asking as she walked up underneath him.

"Why do you follow me?" she asked, not paying attention to his question and looking up to where he balanced on the monkey bars.  

"Because I worry about you."  Well, throw subtlety out the window.  

"Why?"

Heero sighed.  "I…I just care about what happens to you."

"You don't say how you feel much, do you?" she asked.

"Not normally."  Speaking of normally…normally Heero would be more than annoyed at having to answer so many questions.  But for some reason, he didn't mind answering hers.  Perhaps that meant more than he was willing to admit.

"Then what do you do _normally_?" she asked, continuing her investigation.

He thought for a moment.  What did he do normally?  "I ignore my feelings and act indifferent," he confessed.  "I have a feeling you do too, normally."  

"Perhaps I do."

"Hn."  Heero dropped down from the monkey bars and stood in front of her.  "Should we go now?  We will have a busy night."

"We should," she said, turning to leave.  Heero did a mental happy-dance as she slowed her pace, waiting for him to catch up as they walked side by side to Quatre's home.

*******

Staring up at yet another unfamiliar ceiling, Duo was unhappily reminded of his days as a street whore.  Looking at another unfamiliar ceiling in another unfamiliar room and laying on an unfamiliar bed.  But the very familiar weight on his chest and arm holding around his ribcage made him smile, despite having no idea where he was.  He glanced down at Hilde's bed-mussed raven hair and quietly slipped out of bed, careful to put a pillow in the place his body had once been.  

He heard a small sound coming from the kitchen as he made his way stealthily down the long curving staircase in Quatre's house.  Peering around the corner, Duo saw Jinakel sitting on top of the counter, her feet swinging idly and occasionally bumping against the cabinets below.  Another soft thunk rattled as her feet brushed against the metal handle of the cabinet door.  

"You're awake," she said, still looking away from him.

His surprise kept him silent, but only for a short moment.  "Yea, I am usually the first to get up.  Guess my light sleeping habits from the streets still haven't worn off."

She nodded.  "I knew you'd probably hear me down here.  You have a sixth sense about that sort of thing."

Duo's eyebrows knitted in a confused expression.  "Yea, how'd you know that?"

"I've known you all for a long time."

Duo pulled himself up onto the island countertop.  "How'd you know us all?"

"I've followed you since the three original dragons met in Hong Kong.  Quatre and I were living there at the time.  That was right after the war.  And I was there when Hilde joined the group in Germany the next year.  And I was there when Chang was taken by the Triad and then became the leader after dissolving the Triad.  I have been keeping track of you all for a long time, because Heero has been keeping track of us."

"Heero?"

"Yes, he searches for the last of the Purebloods.  He asks questions in dark alleyways and follows broken clues to find where Quatre and I hide.  And he always brings you and the Night Hunters with him on a chase."

"Why does Heero hunt you and Quatre?" Duo asked, intrigued with Jina's story.  He'd never known that Heero had a plan behind the seemingly random moves from city to city, country to country.  

"He thinks that we are bad.  I'm sure even you've heard rumors of a vampire that cannot die, a vampire that consumes a thousand souls in a single night.  You've heard of a vampire more terrifying of death and more powerful than a god, haven't you?" she asked.

"Every hunter's heard rumors about a demon vampire who kills whole cities within a few days, who eats the damned and the mortals and flies through the air…" his voice trailed off as he looked at her.  He remembered the wings.  "You're that vampire, aren't you?"

"I didn't choose to be this way."

Duo nearly fell off the counter.  "So you're the one that Heero's been hunting all this time.  Why…?"

"Why what?" she asked sharply.  "Why didn't I tell you who I was?  Why didn't I just give up and let Heero kill me?  What is it that you expect from me?"

He sat for a moment.  "I expected you to be evil."

"You forget who tells the tales.  Vampires spread the rumors of my existence," Jina said as she stopped swinging her feet and pulled them up under her to sit cross-legged on the counter.  Her head rested against the cabinets behind her.  

"Of course they'd make you seem more evil.  It was them you were hunting," Duo reasoned.  Jina nodded her head, making the cabinet door shake.  "So why didn't you tell us?"

"Would you have believed me?"

"No."

She sat for a moment, her breathing loud in the quiet room.  "What is Heero like?" she asked.

"Heero?  He's pretty hard to understand most of the time.  He keeps to himself," Duo shrugged as he talked.  "And there's always something going on behind his eyes, you know what I mean?  He's always thinking or analyzing something that's just way over everyone else's head."

"Hn," Jina said in a very Heero-like fashion.  

"Why did you want to know?"

Her eyes focused on Duo, and for a brief moment he thought he saw a flash of fear in the depths of her dark brown eyes.  She blinked, regaining her air of indifference and strength.

"He bothers me."

"Hey, Heero bothers everyone," Duo joked with a bright smile.  "There's no reason to get worked up about it.  He does it all the time."

"Do you wish to stay here?" she asked, changing the subject very quickly.

"What?"

"Do you wish to stay here for any length of time?  I shall need to go and get food for you non-drinkers.  Quatre sometimes has a little on hand, but nothing at the moment.  Do you wish to stay?" she repeated, jumping down of the counter with the grace of an acrobat.

"I know I wish to, but I'm not so sure about the others…" Duo started to say.  

"That's a good enough answer.  As long as you won't all be running off as soon as the sun sets, then I'll get something from the grocery store.  I'll be back before they wake up," Jina said as she walked out of the kitchen.  She deftly maneuvered to avoid running into Heero as they passed each other in the doorway.  Heero turned to watch her leave.

"Where is she going?" he asked Duo.

"Grocery store."

"Hn.  She expects us to stay then."

"I think she wants us to stay, Heero.  I think she gets lonely with Quatre.  And I'm sure she's more than tired of running from you all the time," Duo said with a venomous glare.  

"So she knew?"

"Of course she knew.  She's the one you're hunting.  Why?"

"She killed my family…"

"You know that she doesn't feed on humans," Duo interrupted.  "It must have been someone else.  Someone that looked like her."

"I never saw her.  I just knew that the vampires who killed my family talked about a Pureblood, a vampire that flew in and destroyed my family before they could eat my parents.  I've been searching for that Pureblood ever since," Heero stated, far exceeding his word quota for the day.  

"She's not a Pureblood vampire," Trowa's quiet voice came from the doorway. 

"Right, so you're chasing after the wrong person Heero," Duo tried to convince him.

"And who is the only Pureblood?"

"Quatre."

"Who said I was hunting _her_?" Heero asked, taking a step closer to Duo in his most menacing manner.  "I'm hunting the one that destroyed my family.  If she protects him, then they are both my enemies."

"Ask questions before you carry out your personal vendetta," Trowa warned.  "There may be circumstances you do not understand.  And killing wrongfully would eat you away until even less of a man remained."  He turned and left, ignoring the death-glare he received from his closest partner and war comrade.  

"You know, he's right…" Duo started to break the silence.

"Don't talk to me.  I'm going back to sleep," Heero said suddenly.  He left the kitchen and went back to the couch.  Instead of lying on the couch he'd slept on earlier, he flopped himself on the second couch, Jina's couch.  Breathing in the scent of Jina, he fell back asleep.  

Duo waited in the kitchen for someone else to come in; whether someone else was getting up or Jina was getting back from the store, he didn't care.  He just wanted to have some more company in this tense environment.  Heero's anger was suffocating, and he was sure that a little extra sleep wouldn't be enough to convince his friend to take a path of non-violent forgiveness.  

"She will kill him, you know," Catherine said with a soft voice from behind him.  Everyone was sneaking up on him today. 

"What makes you say that?" he asked, curious as to how Cathy had this insight.

"I talked with Quatre last night, after everyone went to bed," she blushed a little as she mentioned the word "bed."  After a little shrug, she continued, "He told me that Jina would kill anyone who tried to hurt him, and that she has before.  Plenty of times.  He wanted me to warn Heero and the rest of you about it."

"So he already knows that Heero wants to kill him?"

"Yes."

Duo sighed.  "This is a lot tougher than I thought it'd be."

"What's tough?"

"Thinking of a way to control Heero.  You know how stubborn he is.  If he has a plan in mind, nothing short of the end of the world will keep him from completing whatever mission he has set for himself.  Hell, even if it were the end of the world, I think he'd ask God to just wait with the Apocalypse thing until he gets through with his mission."

"Should I go and talk to him?" Cathy asked.

"No, Trowa and I have already scolded him.  He's gone back to bed," Duo admitted.  "I don't think it'd do any good to get him any more angry than he already is."

"Just tell him that Jina means business, Duo.  Let him know that Heero's little charms aren't going to change her mind when it comes to protecting Quatre.  She's done it for hundreds of years.  Heero isn't going to get her to stop now, and he sure as hell isn't going to be able to defeat an enemy like her," Cathy said, giving Duo a little hug before leaving the kitchen and going back upstairs.

Duo sighed.  "I know that Heero won't be able to beat her," he said out loud to himself.  "And I know that Jina won't neglect the purpose for her existence to stand by and let Heero kill her Master.  How do you get two stubborn people to live together in relative peace?"


	7. Room for Wings

I do not own Gundam Wing.

**Chapter Six**

When Heero woke again, it wasn't just Duo and Jina who were talking in the kitchen.  By the barrage of voices coming from that room, he knew that everyone was awake.  Frowning a little because he'd overslept everyone else, he got up and huffed off to the bathroom.

"Heero's awake," Duo announced after hearing the bathroom door slam.  

"This should be interesting," Roddy said, now up to date on the current dilemma of Heero wanting to kill Quatre.  And Jina more than willing to kill Heero in order to protect Quatre.  

"Interesting isn't how I'd describe it," Catherine said in a worried tone of voice.  She held tightly onto Quatre's hand as she ate her breakfast.  Jina snarled and went upstairs.  

Everyone ate in silence.

"Where is she?" Heero asked when he came back into the kitchen, freshly washed with a foul look on his face.  

"Upstairs," Duo answered.

Heero glared at Quatre.  He glared at the way Cathy was holding his hand.  He glared back at Quatre.  He began to reach for the hilt of his sword.

"Quatre," Jina called from the kitchen doorway.  

"Yes?" he asked, voice shaking from the venomous glares he was still receiving from the Japanese hunter.

"Eat."

"What?"  Quatre forgot all about the glares from Heero.  

"You heard me."

"No.  Not now.  You need your strength," Quatre was able to tell her, finally getting control of his more than surprised mouth.  

Jina shook her head.  "I don't know if I'll be coming back…" this got even Heero's attention "…so you need to eat before I go."

"No."

"Quat…" she warned.

"I said NO Jina, I'm not going to feed on you before you go out to fight with Chang.  You need all the strength you can get.  I weaken you…" he babbled, not caring if the hunters heard his worst secret.  

"Nothing about you weakens me," she said quietly.  

"This time, Jina, I know you're lying."  

She was silent, hurt by his accusation.  Hurt more by the way he called her on her lying.  She never lied.  But she'd tell him that he never hurt her, that he was never a burden as long as it kept him happy.  She lived to make him happy.  His mother had made sure of that.  

"Jina," Quatre said, taking a few steps closer.  "I'm sorry…"

"I won't come back, Quat.  You'll have to live alone," she told him, barely keeping control of her wavering voice.  

He didn't have an answer for that one.  He couldn't think of anything to say that told her how much he believed in her, how much he truly believed that she'd do all in her ability to make it back to him after facing Chang.  But Quatre wasn't stupid.  Jina's assault on Chang's castle was suicidal, even for a god-like vampire.  She was most likely not coming back.

And he decided he should do what she wanted.  He walked closer, his mouth barely an inch away from her neck when he finally stopped approaching.  Glancing back at Cathy with apologies in his eyes, Quatre bared his fangs, feeling them grow longer and extend from his gums.  Jina tilted her head slightly, giving him better access to his neck.  It made him sick to do this, but she would allow no other way.  She had never let him feed on any other living being.  Never.  

Heero heard Cathy gasp as Quatre's teeth came in contact with Jina's neck.  He felt his own stomach surge at the sight.  Jina's eyes rolled back in her head before she shut her eyelids tight, blocking out everything but Quatre and the pulsing of her own heartbeat.  Her mouth opened and closed a few times, her own elongated incisors coming very close to Quatre's neck.  But Heero knew she restrained herself from biting back.  He could sense her inner struggle as he watched; he could see her fists clenched tight enough to draw blood from the pressure of her fingernails, and he could see her lips tremble as she attempted to cover her teeth.  

Finally, Quatre stepped back, wiping the back of his hand against his mouth.  He nimbly licked off the blood that he'd wiped, looking at Jina with large sad eyes.  She put a hand to the side of her neck, stopping the slow spilling of blood before her skin healed completely and left not a mark to show what had just happened.  Her eyes opened, seeming the slightest shade of red.  Her gaze ran across everyone in the room.  Cathy's shocked expression as she clung to Hilde.  Duo's wide eyes and Trowa's ever-stoic steel eyes.  Roddy's sickened facial features and then to Heero.  She watched him for a while.

He watched back.  He saw it there.  The pain and sacrifice behind her eyes.  The sacrifice she'd make for Quatre.  The many things she'd already given for him.  And in that most personal and vulnerable moment, she was more beautiful than he'd ever seen her.  

Jina wobbled, caught herself on the cabinet and then made her way out the kitchen door.  Heero followed her.

*******

"What was that?" Trowa asked, his strong quiet voice the first to speak after witnessing such a disturbing play of affection and care between two vampires.

"She makes me," Quatre said with his head down.  No more blood dripped from the corners of his mouth and the blood on his hand had been washed away under the steady flow of water from the faucet.  

"Why?" Duo asked.  

Quatre took a deep breath.  "Jina refuses to allow me to kill.  This is her way of making sure I'll never experience the death of others, like she does each night.  It haunts her, to kill all those people, whether they're vampires or not.  She wakes up screaming sometimes.  She insists that I only feed from her."

"But I don't understand," Cathy said, coming closer.

"What don't you understand!?" Quatre yelled, making Cathy and the rest of the Hunters jump back a step or two.  "I'm a VAMPIRE, Catherine.  A horrible, blood-sucking vampire and I have to feed on my only friend to survive.  What is there to not understand?"

Cathy looked tense, but she walked back closer to him, just out of arm's reach.  "I don't understand why you do something you hate."

"There is no other way."  Quatre looked down at the ground in shame.  "Would you rather that I die of starvation?"

"No, Quatre, I'd never wish that upon you…"

"Then there is no other way," he said with finality.  He turned to leave, but Cathy's hand on his shoulder stopped his progress out of the kitchen.  "Why do you care about a vampire?" he asked, his voice barely above a whisper.

"I just do," she said as she spun him around to face her.  He kept his head down so he would not have to look in her eyes.  

"You two stay here," Trowa commanded of his sister and Quatre.  "We'll go out.  I'll see you in the morning, Cathy."  He bent down and whispered something into Roddy's ear, and they left with Duo and Hilde.  Neither Cathy nor Quatre moved again until they heard the front door close.  

"Why do you care about me?" Quatre asked again.

"Why do you care about me?" she repeated.

Quatre looked thoughtful for a moment.  "I just do."

"Then my answer stays the same as well," Cathy said with a smile.  She pulled Quatre close and threw her arms around his neck.  After a moment, Quatre reciprocated the hug, lifting his arms from where they hung limp at his sides to around Cathy's waist.  She kissed his neck, softly, as they pulled apart.

The shocked look in his wide eyes made it hard for Catherine to contain her laughter.  His hand went to the place on his neck where her lips had touched.  

"Why did you do that?" he asked, voice still quiet and betraying the surprise he felt.

"I don't know.  It seemed like a good idea at the time," she replied with a shrug.  She flashed a smile and took a bold step forward.  Poor frightened Quatre took a step back.

"I don't think Jina would approve of…" his voice silenced as Catherine's lips pressed lightly against his own.  He couldn't think straight anymore.  All that he knew was that he wanted more, to be closer to this beautiful woman who was not afraid of the terrifying vampire.  The horrible beast that they both knew he was.  He took a half-step forward, pressing harder against her soft lips and opening his mouth slightly.  The kiss deepened, and Quatre couldn't remember which way was up anymore.  

"Nice," Cathy said after the kiss ended.  Quatre's eyes opened slowly to find her standing back from him, looking at him appreciatively.  He was confused.  What was nice?  She came closer and put her hand on his bare chest, feeling his wiry muscles.  Her fingers tickled against his skin and felt good, making him close his eyes and moan lowly.  

His eyes snapped open and he looked at her even more confused than before.  He'd come downstairs fully dressed, and now she was rubbing her hands on his bare torso.  Quatre looked down to see his shirt ripped and at his feet.  Embarrassed and not wanting to confirm the truth, he had to force himself to look to the side.  

"Do all vampires do that?" she asked, amused.

"No," he sulked.  

"I think they're beautiful," Cathy said, reaching out to touch one of the wings that spread from Quatre's back.  They were warm, feeling and looking like human skin.  Quatre let Cathy satisfy her curiosity, standing still as she circled him to see his wings from every angle.  She reached out and touched them as she walked around him again.  Quatre moaned.

"Wings are sensitive," he told her through ground teeth.  

"Are they really?" she asked with a bit of mischief in her smile.  

"Yes," he managed to say as she touched the place where they merged with his back.  "Though I didn't know it until now…"

She kissed the back of his neck, and then kissed the spot between his shoulder blades, between where his wings emerged from his spine.  Quatre shuddered and his wings flexed, knocking over one of the kitchen chairs.  It felt so good, he wasn't the least bit upset when Cathy started to laugh out loud at him.  

"So is this a natural reaction to sex?" she asked, unashamed.

Quatre blushed.  "I don't know," he admitted.  "I've never…felt this way before."

"Never?" Cathy repeated, her seductive mischief becoming more and more evident.  She walked back around to face him.  "You mean you've never…"

"No," Quatre interrupted quickly.  "Jina's helped me lead a very sheltered life."

Cathy placed three small kisses on his collarbone.  "Then this should be a fun learning experience," she said, pushing him back until he bumped the counter.  Quatre was pinned, keeping him from escaping the tall redhead's advances.  But then again, even if he _could_ escape, he didn't think that he would.

*******

Heero followed Jina up the stairs and into her bedroom, watching as she kicked off her shoes pulled off the clothes she'd been wearing and opened her wardrobe doors.  She slid into black leather pants and hiked up the legs to pull on tall combat boots.  Lacing them expertly, she pulled the pant legs back down and turned back to her wardrobe.  Grabbing a backless halter top that had more material missing than present, she tied the dark blue garment on and shrugged into her black wool coat.  She quickly braided her long dark hair and turned around, facing Heero.

"You dressed like me," he said with no emotion in his voice.

She was annoyed.  "My shirt is blue, yours is black," she pointed out.

"Your shirt is the color of my eyes," Heero told her.

"So?  What does that have to do with anything?"

"You aren't going to deny it?"

"It's true."  She walked closer to him, her sheathed sword firmly in her hand.  "Why else do you think I picked this shirt?"

"Backless," he said.  "Room for wings."

"True.  But that's only a functionary reason…" 

Heero came closer to her, invading her personal space.  But she didn't back away.  "What other reason do you have?"

"You're a reason."  She could feel his breath on her face as she looked up at him.  His features blurred for a moment, and she felt herself waver slightly on her own two legs.  Hopefully, he wouldn't notice.  Jina regained her senses and ignored her energy and blood loss.  

Heero's hands clasped firmly on either of her shoulders, holding her upright.  He noticed the way she seemed unsteady on her feet.  

"You're not well.  You should stay here," he told her.

"Bullshit," she spat back.  Jina tried to worm away from his grip, but Heero wasn't as weakened as she was.  She didn't succeed.  

"You should stay here," Heero repeated.

"And let them come?  I can't.  They know that we're here."

"How?"

"Chang knows.  Somehow, I know he knows," Jina said, giving in to the fact that Heero wasn't going to let go of her anytime soon.  

"What will we do?" he asked, accepting her explanation for the time being.

"Kill him."

"Why does he want you?"

"You know why.  Vampires accumulate the power of other vampires when they feed on them.  I've feed on vampires for hundreds of years.  He'd gain all that power in one drink if he ever caught me…"

"But he's caught you before.  Why didn't he kill you then?"

"He wants a Pureblood.  Quatre," Jina explained.  "Quatre has even more power than me.  There's an ancient tale of Purebloods containing the power to control the world.  That is what your friend Chang is after."

"Wufei should know that's not true.  What are you not telling me?" Heero demanded.

"That Chang is desperate.  He promised the Triad he'd bring them the last Pureblood within three years of his takeover.  If he does not deliver, they will tear him apart."


	8. Like Necks?

I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Seven 

"That Chang is desperate.  He promised the Triad he'd bring them the last Pureblood within three years of his takeover.  If he does not deliver, they will tear him apart."  Jina continued staring up at Heero in their close proximity to one another.  She wavered again, her eyes rolling back before she shut her eyes.

"What's wrong?" Heero asked her, keeping his hands on her shoulders.

"I don't think you want to know.  Quatre.  Its hot in here, isn't it?" she asked suddenly, backing away and shrugging out of her wool coat.  

"Everything is cold in St. Petersburg," Heero told her.  "And what about Quatre?"

"Did you know we're connected, the two of us?  Quatre and I have lived together so long, fed from each other so often that we can actually feel each other?"

"I didn't know," Heero admitted.

Jina staggered backwards until she bumped into the bed, sitting down on it.  "You know now.  I can feel him."

"Feel him how?"  Heero walked closer to her, sitting beside her on the bed and turning to face her more completely.  

Suddenly, Heero's breathing was inhibited as Jina's mouth pressed against his.  He felt the weight of her body resting in his lap as she threw one leg over him and straddled him.  Heero did not fight against her.

She pushed against him, making him lay back on the bed.  Heero only opened his eyes when Jina pulled away, sitting up on him and throwing her head back as her wings reemerged.  He moaned as her hips ground into his, and he was unable to stop his own hands from reaching up and grabbing her to pull her back down on top of him.

After kissing him deeply, Jina's mouth migrated to his neck.  Heero ignored the slight pain of her teeth between her soft kisses.  He could feel the tiny stings from his jaw to his collarbone.  She started to pull away.  Her warm wet tongue ran across his neck, covering the small nips she'd placed there.  

Jina was gone.  Coldness replaced the warmth that had been laying on top of him.  Heero's eyes opened to see Jina standing a few feet away, holding one hand to her mouth in shock as she watched him.  He sat up.

"What's wrong?" he asked, confused as to what would make her change her mind so quickly.

She didn't answer, but shook her head as she took a few more steps back.  Jina's mouth looked a little more red than usual, her lips more than their usual shade of pink.  Heero put a hand up to his neck, feeling moisture there.  Part of that was from her mouth, he knew.  And part of that was from his blood.  

Remarkably, it didn't bother him.  He had actually liked it.  Pulling on the sleeve of his jacket, Heero used it to wipe off his neck.  The cuts from Jina's teeth were too small to need any first aid.  In fact, they had already stopped bleeding.

"What's wrong?" he repeated.

"I didn't mean to," she started to say.  

"Didn't mean to what?" Heero asked, beginning to get frustrated.  Leading a guy on like that was not a nice thing to do.  "Mean to do what?  Kiss me?  Push me down on the bed?  What _exactly_ did you not mean to do?"

"You're angry with me."

"No shit I'm angry with you.  You can't just do that to a guy and then quit…"

"I'm sorry," she said softly, reaching down to pick up her dropped jacket.  

Heero sighed.  "I'm really not angry with you," he told her.  Jina started buttoning the jacket closed, covering most of her light ivory skin that he'd been enjoying looking at.  Heero decided to screw the apologies and show her how much he was not angry with her.  Stepping closer, he lifted her chin and kissed her mouth gently, tasting part of his blood that lingered there.

"We can't do this," she said, closing her eyes again as she fought against Quatre's influences on her body.  Jina stepped back away from Heero, her outstretched hands against his chest to keep him an arm's length away.  

"Why not?" Heero breathed, trying to reach out and touch her, but she avoided his hands.

"I'll kill you."

"It wouldn't be a bad way to go," he said, adopting a Duo-like smile.  

"I didn't mean that."  Jina glared at him.

"What did you mean, then?"

She stepped back, tossing her bangs from her face and taking a deep breath.  "If you come after Quatre, I'll have to…"

Heero blinked.  Trowa had told him to ask questions before carrying out his punishment.  Perhaps he should.  "Did Quatre kill my parents?"

"Quatre has killed no one."  Her answer was quick and her voice calm.  

"Is it possible that you didn't see him?"

"No.  He does not go anywhere without my accompaniment.  I make sure of that."

Heero sighed.  "Did you?"

"Kill them?  I don't know.  I've killed many people in my lifetime.  You will have to tell me more about it, if you want a correct answer."  Jina went to sit back down on the bed, feeling a long story coming on.

"I'll keep it brief," Heero promised.  "My parents were poor, farmers outside of Kyoto.  When I was young, about seven or eight, they were attacked in the night.  Vampires were pounding on our door, trying to get in.  I remember being scared.  I remember running to my mother and clutching to her skirts.  She smiled down at me and shoved me in the wardrobe closet, telling me to lock the doors from the inside and not to come out until everything was quiet.  My father had been a vampire hunter.  That's his sword that I use," he said, nodding to the sword he'd left sitting on the chair by the door.  

"What happened?" Jina encouraged.

"They were overpowered.  The vampires dragged them outside, and that's where it gets confusing.  There were screams, horrible screams."  Heero sat down on the bed next to Jina, putting his hands to his head as he remembered the bloodcurdling screams of his mother and the vampires.  "My father was still alive though.  And more vampires came after him.  I could hear them calling as they tried to hunt him down.  And then there were more screams.  I remember hearing some voices that I didn't recognize calling out and running from a Pureblood.  They said that the Pureblood took their meal…and….and…I don't remember any more after that."

Jina sighed and wrapped an arm around Heero's shoulders, trying to remember what happened that night, if it were her.   She was also trying to fight her hormones, influenced by Quatre's little tryst downstairs.  

"I don't remember everything that I've ever done, Heero," she admitted finally.  "But I do know that those vampires were probably talking about me.  We lived in Japan for many years, hunting down the oldest and most powerful vamps I could find.  And we would have been near Kyoto around that time."

Heero tensed under her arms.

"But I know that I would not have killed innocent people like your parents.  Only if they had been changed would I have…"

"Please," Heero interrupted.  "Don't mention that they could have been turned."  His head hung low and silent tears fell onto his thighs.  

"I'm sorry, Heero.  I almost wish that I had done it, so you could avenge your parents and feel at ease."  Jina held him closer.

"I've been chasing a phantom, all this time."

She lifted his head and kissed him gently.  "We have work to do tonight.  Do you feel up to it?"

"Do you?" he asked, remembering her near fainting spell earlier.

"I am stronger now.  Time helps.  And blood."  She cast him a quick smile, reminding him of her nipping episode earlier.  

"I can't wait until this is over," Heero admitted, wiping his face clean and gathering his sword.  

*******

"Where have you two been?" Duo asked, waggling his eyebrows as Heero and Jina walked up.  They had all gone to the same streetlight they'd been under last night, after meeting with Wufei in the alleyway.  

"The more scandalous question is, where is your sister?" Jina said, looking at Trowa.

"With your master, I presume," he answered.  Cathy was old enough to make her own decisions.  And she always did go after the dangerous type.  She had been dating Wufei for almost a year before he had been taken.  Trowa was actually glad to see his sister moving on and finding someone else, but the vampire bit didn't please him entirely.

"And where are we going?" Heero asked, ignoring his idiotic partner in crime who was still nudging him in the side and wanting details.  

"I know."  Jina didn't surprise anyone with that announcement.

"Heero?"

"What Duo?"

"What's on your neck?" Duo said as he reached up to touch the small tears in Heero's skin.

"Nothing Duo."

"Uh huh, sure."

"Walk Duo," Heero instructed, quickening his pace to travel beside Jina.  

"Yes sir, Mr. I-like-it-rough," Duo said, giving a mock salute.  Hilde hit him in the back of the head.  

"It isn't far, actually," Jina ignored the battle between Hilde and Duo and continued to lead the Night Hunters through the St. Petersburg streets.  "We were very close to him last night.  Quatre should have been more careful out here."  Jina stumbled as she walked, making Heero nervous as he steadied her.

"You shouldn't be out here.  You're still not ready to fight," he warned.

"I'm ready.  I have to be."  Jina stopped abruptly, making Duo run into her back.  

"Sorry," he apologized.  "Why'd you stop?"

"We're here."

Everyone spread out, standing side by side to look up at Chang's castle.  And it was a castle.  Duo wasn't lying when he said it looked like the stereotypical scary castle he'd seen in every vampire movie ever made.  The large stone walls held tall windows and large pointed steeples with red roofs.  The stone was dark, a charcoal gray which seemed as black as the dark surrounding it during the night.  

Heero swallowed the lump in his throat.  He'd been waiting to meet Chang like this for three years.  He'd wanted to save his friend by releasing him from the damnation of vampirism.  But now that he was here, he was scared shitless.  

"Let's get moving," Jina said, squeezing Heero's hand for a moment to get him back to reality.  She smiled up at him, despite their certain doom.  

"I'm beginning to think this is a bad idea," Duo admitted quietly.  Hilde just hit him again.

"You said you wanted to come and do this," she reminded him.

The hair on the back of Heero's neck stood on end and he began reaching for the hilt of his sword.  Jina was already baring her teeth, her short broad sword held in front of her and ready.  Someone was already coming, whether the Hunters were ready or not.

But these weren't vampires.  The sun hadn't quite disappeared behind the low mountains surrounding St. Petersburg, so vampires had yet to emerge for the night.  These were human pets, promised the everlasting life of a vampire if they only did what their master instructed.  Little did they know that most masters killed off their human pets before ever granting them their wish of immortality.  

"Tainted humans," Jina growled.  She didn't like killing anyone but other vampires, but she'd kill the pet of a vampire if she needed to.  Except she never fed from one.  

"You mean, these aren't vampires?" Duo asked, confused as he unsheathed his sword.

"No."  Jina stood her ground, spreading her legs and settling into a defensive stance.  "They are humans who are ruled by vampires.  True vermin."  She growled deeper, her eyes flashing red for a moment before settling back into a dark maroon color.

"But they're in our way," Duo insisted, not wanting to kill other humans. 

"And they will remain there until we remove them," Trowa said, readying his own broadsword.  

The pets advanced, coming dangerously close to vengeful Hunters.  They taunted and teased as they drew closer, intending to keep the intruders off their guard.  

"Such a motley crew, too bad they will not again see the light of day," the one with green hair and a long blue coat said.

"And look at the little females," another commented, referring to Hilde and Roddy who had their small swords held in front of them.  "They pretend to be fighters."

"But the women are no match for the acting of these serious ones," the one with green hair said again.  He was obviously the ringleader.  He pointed his sword in Trowa and Heero's directions.  "These might break if they try to have any fun."

"That is no contest to the play our most prized actress is putting on," the one with the red jacket said, finally speaking.  "A vampire who runs with a pack of humans.  How pathetic."  

"No more pathetic than humans who seek to become vampires," Duo countered, getting annoyed quickly.  Patience was not his greatest virtue.  

Heero ignored most of the bantering exchange.  His focus was on Jina, and how she wobbled even as she stood in that protective stance.  Watching her intently, he noticed how her eyes blinked slowly, closing for a few seconds before reopening.  She was tired, and needed nourishment.  He wished he could have given her more at the house.  He wished he could have helped her more.  And he was frustrated.  

"Kill them, Jina," he said, giving her permission to kill the non-vampires.  She didn't waste time.

"Thank you," she whispered before the low growl in her throat erupted into a roar and she rushed at the stunned human pets.  


	9. Lintel Carvings

I do not own Gundam Wing.

Chapter Eight 

Heero watched as Jina made short work of the human pets.  A seasoned vampire might be able to deflect her offensive attack for half a minute or more, but humans without immortal strength and experience didn't stand a chance.  The three pets were on the ground, gasping for breath as their own blood flowed down the stairs of Wufei's castle.  

He could see Jina stumble, her eyes locked on the thick crimson liquid that stained her sword.  He knew that she hadn't wanted to kill anyone but vampires.  She would most likely feel guilty about this for a long time, just as she felt guilty for the death of his parents.  Even though she wasn't responsible for their deaths at all, she still would feel guilty for their pain.  And she was feeling it now, he could tell by the look in her eyes, the way they changed from deep red to dark brown.  

Jina stumbled and fell to her knees by the green-haired pet.  Duo was beside her instantly, putting an arm around her and telling her that their fate led them to death.  

"You should eat," Heero said silently, unmoving.

Jina looked up at him, her eyes wide with shock.  "I can't.  Not here, in front of all…" her voice broke off as she looked around, taking in the Night Hunters.  She had never fed in front of live humans before meeting them.  She hated feeding.  And she'd be damned before she ever let her friend Duo and her…friend…Heero see her at her most ferocious.  

"You should," Heero insisted.  "You said that blood helps rebuild your strength, and you'll need your strength for when we meet Chang.  Otherwise, we're all in danger."

She hesitated for a moment, looking aside at Duo's violet-blue eyes and asking questions without saying words.

"He's right you know.  You can't help who you are."  Duo stood up and backed away, putting an arm around Hilde to brace his beloved for what was going to happen next.  

Jina ran her hand softly through the pet's green hair.  Growling softly, her lips curled back to reveal her elongated and sharp incisors.  She closed her eyes as she drank from the rapidly dying human, careful not to drink from him right before he died.  

She stood up, refreshed, and took a deep breath.  Her pink tongue slid out from between her lips, removing the excess blood from the outside of her mouth.  Taking off her coat, she extended her wings, ready to fight.

"Let's go," she simply said, walking away from the three pet corpses on the stairs and toward the large iron doors of Chang's castle.  

Heero and Trowa braced their shoulders against the imposing black doors, pushing inward with all their might.  The doors swung inward, slowly with a high-pitched metallic screech that made them all shiver.  

The entry way was large, with a tall ceiling and thin gothic-like columns along the sides.  Stone gargoyles and statues of pain rested at the foot of each column, staring at them with cold gray unmoving eyes.  Their footsteps echoed as they trod lightly through the stone hallway, trying to make as little sound as possible.  The entryway ended abruptly into an indoor courtyard, showing three passages: one directly to the left, one straight ahead, and one to the right.  

"Just like Chang to live in a castle shaped like a gigantic cross," Trowa muttered under his breath, his voice echoing regardless in the high-ceilinged marble and stone room.

"What should we do now?" Duo asked, puzzled by the strange design of the castle.  "You'd think Chang would be at the end of the longest side of the cross…" nods from the group confirmed that they'd been thinking the same thing "…but which side is the longest?  We don't know which way this cross-castle is facing."  Duo frowned as he turned in a circle, looking at each pathway.  

Jina stepped forward, looking at the doorway for the entry hall.  "That doorway has angels carved in the lintel, and it leads outside," she observed.  "The one on the left has hands and eyes carved into it…"

"That's incredibly disturbing," Duo interrupted with a quiet voice.  He turned and smiled broadly, taking a hold of Hilde's hand.  "And that's the way we're going.  See you guys soon," he called, dragging his reluctant Hilde down the left corridor.

Trowa shook his head slightly, giving his own beloved a meaningful look before speaking up.  "And this one on the right has faces of demons carved on it, like masks.  It calls to me," he explained, giving Heero and Jina a nod before walking with Roddy under the doorway and out of sight in the dark hall.

Heero and Jina stood looking at one another, exchanging hope with their eyes before looking up to see what carvings decorated the center lintel.  Jina gasped when she saw the detailed sculptures of vampires devouring frightened humans.  Vampires with horns on their heads and fangs in their mouths were chasing and dragging down humans, ravaging them with their teeth and laughing while covered in the innocents' blood.  A large vampire was centered on the doorway, standing on a pedestal of human skulls and overseeing the mutilations of the humans below him.  That vampire had large wings like a bat's with human bones for armor, external bare ribs protected the vampire's own torso as he stood on his skull dais.  He held a large staff in one hand, made of human femurs with an opened bone hand on the apex of the tall staff.  His other hand rested on the head of a gargoyle-like dog.  He was smiling evilly at the horrors before him in the carving, his hair wild and fanned around him as the winds in the sculpture ruffled his clothes and hair.  The lord vampire's eyes were just as wild as his hair, the master sculptor able to capture the vamp's crazed lust in the stone.  His face was Quatre's.

Jina only stood with her mouth agape.  She'd always known that the last Pureblood was supposed to contain the power of all immortal souls, but she'd always refused to believe her sweet little Quatre could be that same destructive power.  Someone had to have already known that Quatre would be the last.

And she would die protecting him.  Jina recognized her own eyes large and in the background to the right of the Lord Quatre on the lintel.  Her eyes were sad and angry all at the same time, looking from the mix of the swirling clouds down upon the scene below.  Heero's eyes were also in the clouds, on the left side of the Stone Quatre, showing his anger.  Jina looked closer.  She looked at the live version of Heero next to her, then back up at the pair of disembodied eyes in the clouds on the carving.  It was Heero.  Those eyes were definitely his.  But this doorway was carved hundreds of years ago, when the Guild of the Triad Vampires first established.  How could they have known Heero would be with her?

She looked closer.  The woman directly in front of Quatre, on her knees and begging as she reached a hand out to the evil Quatre was Cathy.  Jina was sure of it.  The other women being raped and fed on at the same time were crying out, their face distorted in pain and horror, but they were distinguishable.  They were Roddy and Hilde.  Jina's eyes scanned the other humans in the carving, looking for the remaining two.  And she found them.  Trowa was being eaten by one vampire, half of his arm gone in the process, while fending off another vampire with a broken sword.  Duo was still standing his ground, his eyes locked on Hilde as he fought to get to her.  The carving of Duo didn't see the demon-vampire sneaking up from behind him.

Jina's breath hitched.  She choked.  

Heero was there, his arm around her as he kept asking her in his soft deep voice what was wrong.  She was sobbing freely into his shoulder, clutching the back of his neck as she wept and holding him so tightly he had trouble breathing. 

"Don't you see it?" she managed to say.

"See what?"

"The carving, don't you see it?"

She felt Heero's head turn as he looked up to the lintel again.  "There isn't any carving above this doorway, Jina.  The frame is blank."

Jina shivered as she pried herself away from Heero, risking another glance at the terrifying doorway.  "It's still there," she whispered, burying her face in his neck again to keep from looking at it.  "Its horrible."

"But I don't see anything…"

"And you never will."  Jina's head snapped around as she heard the Chinese vampire's voice boom from the interior of the dreaded hallway.  He walked slowly forward, emerging from the darkness of the corridor.  "Heero, you will never see the beauty of this doorway until you become one of us."

Heero growled, but he held tight to Jina.  "I will die before becoming one of you."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Heero.  My dear friend, you know better than to make promises like that.  I made that promise once, you remember?" Wufei teased, smiling as only evil vampires can.  "Just as you made the promise to kill your partner if ever one of us is taken by vampires.  I was there, Heero, and you never raised your gun and aimed it at me.  You let me be taken."

"I couldn't kill you, Wu…"

"You are weak, Yuy.  And you always have been.  You and Trowa hide behind a soldier's mask and pretend to fight for the innocence of humanity.  But you fight because you are too frightened to accept the truth of human hatred."  Chang snarled down at where Heero was still kneeling on the floor.  Jina stood up.

"Humans do not know hate, without first knowing love," she said, her eyes suddenly dry and her body suddenly calm as she faced her adversary.  

"How poetic," Wufei spat.  

"What do you want, Wufei?" Heero asked, standing beside Jina and in front of her wings to face Chang.

"I want the Pureblood.  The blonde in the carving you see, Jinakel Wohess."  

Jina snarled at the use of her human name, her full name, her real name.  "I do not go by that name anymore," she growled.

"Oh, is that because your master's mother killed your entire family and took you in as her slave?"  Chang walked closer, a menacing smile tugging at the edge of his lips revealing his elongated teeth.

"Slave or not, I still do not use that name," Jina said with the same calm voice.  "That name is the name of my past life, and that life is as dead to me as my parents and village are." 

"So be it.  Then you'll not object to your dear master being dead as well."

"I would not speak such words.  The Guild Triad will have your head for your insubordination." 

"On the contrary, I already have the heads of the Guild Triad," Chang confessed, motioning to his right where three underlings emerged from the shadows of the corridor and held the heads of the three most powerful and old vampires in the world.  Or what used to be the three most powerful vampires.  They were dead now.

Jina snarled.  "So you've killed your masters.  How come your picture isn't on the carving in Quatre's place?"

"Because I've yet to kill the last remaining Pureblood, and the only one more powerful than myself.  Even you don't fit into the grand scheme of Vampire History.  You're an incidental, a mutant that should never have been allowed to live," Wufei taunted.  

"But I do live, and I shall make sure that your own live ceases tonight, Chang," Jina answered, her voice rumbling with barely contained fury.  

*******

"Quatre," Cathy said, looking up from the bed at the blonde as he paced naked in his bedroom.  "What's wrong?  You're acting strange all of a sudden."

Quatre paced a few times more between the bathroom door and the wardrobe closet before he registered that Cathy had been speaking to him.  "What?"

"I asked what was wrong," she said patiently.

"I can feel Jina.  She's angry, confused, saddened, frightened, and worried all at the same time.  Such powerful emotions that are all going to burst from her soon if I don't get there to calm her down," he explained, unsure of the situation himself.

"Is that your relationship with her?"

"Yes, part of it.  She takes care of me physically.  She finds us places to live and protects me from the hunters and vampires who would destroy me.  And I protect her in the only way she needs protecting.  She bottles herself up and keeps everything she feels inside.  And Jina is an angry person because of it," Quatre confirmed.  "She and I fit perfectly together."

"Are you going to go to her?  You know that would make her more worried about you, if you went into Chang's castle," Cathy said.  Quatre stopped pacing.

"I cannot leave her there alone."

"She's not alone.  She has Heero with her," Cathy pointed out.  "But he is as useless as she is when it comes to dealing with emotions."

*******

"I shall take my rightful place on that skull dais," Chang insisted.  

"Over my dead body," a small voice said from behind Jina.  She turned around swiftly, hoping that the person behind her was not the person thought it was.   

"That's the point, Winner," Wufei answered with a smile.  Everything was falling perfectly into place.  

"What are you doing here, Quatre?" Jina demanded, stepping closer to her master and getting between him and Chang.  "You know that this too dangerous…"

"Please, Jina, I have to do this.  I can see the carving, too.  And I have to prevent this," Quatre insisted, his light blue eyes brimming with tears.  "And I could feel your rage, and your sadness.  We're connected."

"But by being here, you're putting yourself in danger of becoming that demon," Jina said, reaching up to touch his cheek.  "And you can see what I see about the Night Hunters."

"I do."  Quatre smiled reassuringly at her and stepped to the side in order to address Chang.  "And I will not become that monster."

"I don't want you to, Count Winner.  I will become the ruler of the Vampires.  I will become Lord of this world."  Wufei took a hold of the sword at his side, holding it in front of him.  Quatre brandished his own sword, a curved Arabic piece given to him by his father.  "There is something you should know before you challenge me, Pureblood," Wufei hissed.  "Do not be so hasty to fight me.  Bad things can happen to your dear friends."

"My friends are safe, and far from here," Quatre insisted.

"You are wrong."

Heero, Jina, and Quatre were suddenly surrounded on all sides by vampires holding weapons at ready and hissing at them.  To Quatre's horror, he saw Cathy being held around her neck, her eyes pleading for him to save her.  As he looked around the circle, he saw the other humans, Trowa and Roddy being held captive.  Duo and Hilde had been captured as well.  

"Let them go!" Quatre bellowed, his voice loud and echoing through the marble halls of the cross-shaped castle.  Jina merely growled, keeping her eyes on Chang and waiting for the opportunity to rush him.  Surprised at the sudden appearance of the vampires on all sides, Heero brought his sword out, trying to find a way to release his friends from the grip of the vampires.

"I shall let them go when I can drink your blood, Winner," Chang answered.

"Let.  Them.  Go," Quatre repeated, growing more angry and warm by the second.  He hardly felt Jina's hand as she put it on his arm, attempting to steady him and calm him somewhat.  He couldn't help but glance at the lintel above Chang's head.  The carving was still there, his own face glowing in rage and insane power as he ordered the destruction of every living human.  Jina's eyes looked down from the mists of the clouds.  He glanced at her, seeing the same mix of extreme sadness and rage in her crimson eyes as he saw in the stone carving.  


	10. On the Dias

I do not own Gundam Wing

Chapter Nine 

"That's right, Winner.  Get angry and rush me.  I'm waiting to overpower you, to take control of your body by feeding on your blood.  So come, and get it over with," Chang said, snarling more and showing off his fangs.

Quatre kept his own vampire instincts in check.  His wings were still folded within his back, not out like Jina's.  His teeth were still pulled into his gums, making him look as human as possible.  For some reason, Chang wanted him to get angry and fight him.  But Quatre knew that getting angry meant getting stupid.  Too much was at risk for him to act without thinking things through.  

"Perhaps you need some more encouragement," Wufei smiled.  Quatre heard Cathy scream out.  He spun around to see the vampire holding her slice into her arm with a knife.  Cathy's eyes were wide as she watched her own blood spill from the wound in her forearm.  She looked back at Quatre, the pleading returning to her light blue eyes.

"Leave her alone," Quatre repeated, becoming desperate.  

"Then give me your blood.  All of this will be over when you just cooperate with what the carvings hold," Chang told him.

"The carvings say that Quatre will rule the world, not you," Jina snarled, too angry with everything to clearly speak.  She took a step forward, her sword held at ready.  Her eyes were ablaze with a deep crimson color, close to the color they had been when she was fighting her bloodlust.  Quatre put a hand to his chest, feeling the pain of her madness.  

The vampires holding their friends captive started to back away from the circle, retreating into the dark corridor behind Chang.  Chang, too, began to back away from the look on Jina's face.  She roared and charged.  

Heero followed her lead.  The moment she began to slay the circle of vampires, he was at her back and using his own sword to cut down the beasts around them.  Quatre, too, joined in the fight, but he refused to mortally wound any of the vampires, only using his sword to defend himself and knock them away.  Away to where Jina could get a hold of them and rip them apart.

He had never seen Jina in such a rage.  She used her hands as much as her sword to tear the vampires limb from limb, spilling so much blood that the floor was covered in the thick sticky substance.  Quatre kept slipping in it, fighting to stay upright when so many vampires swirled around them.  But more and more kept falling to the puddles of blood on the ground, their bodies disappearing as Jina destroyed them two and three at a time.  Her roars of anger and pain echoed in the large center room of the castle, making the screams of the vampires seem tiny in comparison.  

Quatre turned a circle.  The vampires were gone.  No more bodies remained on the floors, no more creatures emerged from the shadows to attack them.  Jina's chest heaved as she breathed deeply, trying to settle down after such an unleashing of power.  Her wings stretched involuntarily with each shuddering breath she took.  A myriad of cuts and wounds littered Jina's body and wings, dripping blood.  Heero was there instantly, his hand to the side of her face and looking into her eyes as he tried to help calm her down.  He had been injured as well, but he had not been as reckless as Jina.  Cradling his left arm, Heero favored the large gash on his shoulder and upper arm.  

Quatre was remarkably uninjured.  "Are you well enough to continue, Jina?"

"Yes, Master."

"Do not call me that, please.  After seeing that lintel, I never want to hear those words again," Quatre said softly, hanging his head.  Jina blinked, her eyes returning to a more normal color.  Heero reached up to wipe the blood that was dripping into her eyes.  Whether all the blood on her body was her own or spilled from the vampires around her, no one could tell.  

"I can continue," Jina said softly.

"As can I," Heero offered.

Quatre nodded.  He didn't want his friends to get involved in this fight, but he knew Jina too well to think she'd wait for him here while he went off to fight Chang.  And if Heero was anything like Jina, he too would fight to the death rather than wait around for the fate of Cathy and the others to be determined by someone else.  

Leading the way into the dark corridor, Quatre shivered at the sudden freezing temperature of this part of the cross-castle.  No light illuminated the sides of the walls, and he was somewhat glad that he couldn't see the horrible carvings that must litter this hallway.  Only by his vampire instincts could he tell he was still moving forward, and the right direction, through the hall.

A light began to appear before them, showing a type of throne room.  Jina stumbled forward, putting herself between Quatre and whatever could be in that room.  Heero remained the rear guard.  

Chang was there, standing on top of the throne of human skulls.  To his left, a staff of human bones with an open hand at the apex rested against the wall.  Quatre found it suddenly hard to breathe as he saw the throne and staff from the carving on the lintel in front of him.  Chang's snarl was fearsome as he waited for his next meal to come closer.

"I'm impressed that you three could fight off so many of my vampires," Chang said when they entered the ring of dull red light around the dais.  "But it looks like you all have taken some blows of your own."

Jina simply growled.  

"Don't worry yourself, Daywalker.  Your friends are all very much alive," Chang told her, waving his hand to his right.  They were all there: Trowa, Roddy, Duo, Hilde, and Catherine, chained to the stone walls with heavy black iron.

Jina relaxed only slightly, and Quatre breathed a great sigh of relief.  

"Where are their captors?" Heero asked, not trusting Wufei for a minute.

"Unfortunately, I sent them out to destroy you three after they'd chained their little captives to my wall here.  If they have not come back, then I assume you killed them as well.  But your small victories do not matter.  I am the one you must contend with now."  Chang stepped down off the dais and walked across the floor, stopping only a few feet from Jina, who was still in the lead of the group.

"Jina, don't!  You're hurt," Duo cried from the wall.  Even he could see the frightening way that she swayed as she stood, fighting against her loss of blood to keep consciousness.  In this condition, she'd be no match for Wufei.

She looked aside to where Duo was hanging, very much frightened and beat but thankfully still alive on the wall.  Jina gave a little sorrowful smile, apologizing.  She raised her sword.

"You are not the one I want," Chang hissed.  

"Fight," Jina instructed, lunging at Wufei.  

He deflected her first offensive, sending her sprawling off to the right.  But Jina's rage was returning, and the pain from her numerous wounds was dissipating as she focused herself solely on the Chinese vampire in front of her.  Before her body had finished sliding across the marble floor, she turned and stood up.  Her wings stretched menacingly behind her, making her seem three times as ferocious and large.  She snarled around her long incisors, gleaming a sickly red color in the odd light of the throne room.  Doubts about Jina's ability to fight were quelled instantly.

Chang shivered slightly at seeing Jina's complete rage directed only at him.  He'd heard of her abilities and heard of the insane way she'd destroyed many vampires in the past.  He held his sword at ready, preparing as best he could for her next attack.  

With a heavy flap of her wings, Jina rose steadily from the ground.  All necks craned upward to see where she was going, but she disappeared in the darkness above the throne.  

"Where are you, little one?" Chang yelled out, masking his fear with the sheer loudness of his voice.  "You cannot hide up above me forever."

"I'm sure she doesn't intend to," Heero said from behind him.  Chang spun around quickly, facing Heero now.

"You cannot fight these battles of the vampires, Yuy."

"Watch me."  Heero held his sword ready, keeping Wufei in front of him as he waited for Jina to descend.  It was his responsibility to keep Quatre safe while she fought Wufei.

Jina dropped down from the heights of the room with a screech of wind.  Chang turned, barely in time to deflect her sword and save his life, but not without injury.  His side bled profusely, and a hand instantly went to cover the area that Jina had cut with her blade.  She landed and faced him, battling with swords.  The clanging of metal and their grunts filled the room.  But Jina was not at top form.  Her adrenaline was wearing thin, and she was becoming weaker and weaker under Chang's relentless fighting.  He had her backed up to the edge of the dais, poised for a final blow.

"No!" Heero yelled, leaving his protective stance in front of Quatre to tackle Chang.  Wufei struggled against him, both of them fighting for an advantage as they wrestled on the floor.  

Suddenly, Heero let out a scream and was hurled against the far wall, landing between where Trowa and Hilde were chained.  He didn't move again.

"Bastard," Jina growled, struggling to get to her knees.  

"You are in no condition to fight," Chang told her between heavy breaths.  "You will only get yourself killed if you continue."

"Not likely," Quatre spoke up.  His normally blue eyes had changed to a shade of red-violet, and his wings extended from his body, blocking anything else out of Chang's view.  "You came to fight me.  So fight me."

"With pleasure," Chang said, charging with his sword in hand.  

Quatre took flight, circling above Wufei to prevent from being attacked.  His own curved sword was held in front of him as he dove down, aiming for Chang.  By luck alone, Chang was able to fend off the thrust of Quatre's sword.  Wufei went flying across the floor in a very undignified manner.  

"Nice," he taunted, challenging Quatre to come down again.  Quatre dove from an even higher height, gaining more speed and momentum as he fell from the ceiling of the throne room and back down to the red glow where Chang waited.  Chang's sword was in hand, his feet spread far apart to brace himself from the blow he was about to receive.  Quatre's attack was too swift for anyone to note which vampire had screamed out in pain.  

But Quatre's flight wavered as he struggled to stay in the air.  He dropped slowly, his wings curling about him to protect himself as he fell from ten feet in the air.  Quatre struggled to get back to his feet and untangle himself from the mess of his own wings.  When he finally stood, the bloodsoaked cut on his left thigh was revealed.

Jina roared with the sight of blood shed from her master.  Her entire life was devoted to keeping him safe, and keeping him from ever killing another living being.  Right now, she was failing at both. 

Hurling herself at where Chang remained standing on the marble floor, Jina bared her teeth and prepared to die saving her master.  Chang was caught off guard, for once.  They both went skidding across the smooth floor, a large blood trail in their wake.  

Quatre was shaking as he tried to regain control of his own emotions.  Chang had been there, and he had almost killed him.  And now Jina was in grave danger of dying.  He knew the prophecy.  The last Pureblood will strike down his foes and rise as the ruler of all Vampires, proceeding to take control of all human beings and turning them to demons of darkness.  He knew that killing Chang would start that chain of events. 

But Jina didn't fit anywhere in that prophecy.  Never had a Daywalker ever been mentioned in ancient scrolls, nor a vampire who fed solely on the blood of other vampires.  And Quatre knew that he had to save her.  

"Jina, stop!" he yelled, rushing over to where Chang and Jina tumbled on the ground.  When the struggling ceased, Jina's mouth was closed over Chang's throat as she leaned over him.  Chang was on his back on the floor, eyes closed and awaiting the final bite.

Jina just stared up at Quatre, her eyes clear and her body shaking from fatigue and the effort of staying conscious.  She awaited Quatre's order.

"Just leave him be.  He has been beaten," Quatre said softly, his wings folding into his back and his teeth pulling back up into his gums.  "Let us get our friends and leave this place."  He closed his eyes for a moment before leaving Jina and walking to where Cathy hung chained to the wall.  With a stroke of his sword, he cut the iron bindings at her wrists, and she fell into his arms.

"Oh, Quatre, I was so worried," she sobbed, holding him close to her and feeling his own tears through the material of her shirt as he cried into her shoulder.  

Jina was at Heero's side within moments.  The Japanese man was still breathing and moaned a little as Jina's hands went over his body, checking for injuries.

"The guy is tough," Duo said from off to her left.  "He'll be fine in a few days, I promise."  Duo gave a sun-like smile and wiggled in his chains.  "Care to help us out here?"

Jina got up from the floor and used Heero's nearby sword to break the chains holding Duo, Hilde, Trowa and Roddy from the wall.  They all staggered to their feet, tired from their long night and exhausted at having been held captive against the wall while they watched their friends fight against Chang.  

"I think he'll be fine," Roddy said, checking over Heero herself.  "He's just a little stunned from hitting the wall.  We should take him by a hospital soon just to make sure there aren't any severe head injuries."  Trowa and Duo offered to help carry Heero.

Jina thanked them all and went over to where her master was still holding Catherine. 

"Mas…Quatre?" she asked, correcting herself.  "Are you ready to leave?"

With a loud sniff, Quatre tore himself away from Cathy's embrace and hugged Jina, surprising her into stepping backwards a few feet.  Jina relaxed and held her blonde friend and master in the most comforting embrace she could manage with all of her injuries.  Her wings curled protectively around them both as Quatre vented his worry in tears.  

 "Oh my God, Quatre!  Look out!" Cathy screamed from behind him.

Jina was moving before Cathy said "my" and took the sword from Quatre's side.  She spun around, abandoning her hold on Quatre and attacking Chang as he attempted to sneak up and kill them both.  Quatre's sword was thrust deep into Wufei's stomach.  With a twist of her wrist, she turned the blade and sliced through his waist, cutting him in half.

Chang's body disappeared immediately, with a shimmer of air and a slight shudder.  The red light of the throne room dissipated, covering the throne in darkness.  

Together, the group of Night Hunters and their vampire friends made their way out of the black corridor and back to the center of the castle.  Quatre stopped, holding on to Cathy's hand as he turned and looked at the lintel above the passageway they'd just exited.  

"Jina," he said tentatively, urging her to leave Heero's side for a moment.  She walked next to him, staring up at the carvings above the lintel.  "Do you see anything there?" he asked.

"Yes."

"What is it?"

Jina looked aside at him, confusion on her face.  "Do you not see anything?"

"No," Quatre admitted.  "It is blank."

She smiled a little smile.  "I see only Heero and myself, and we're happy."

"Why can I not see it?" Quatre asked.

"Only vampires can see the carvings on this doorway."


	11. Epilogue: The Dog

DISCLAIMER – I do not own Gundam Wing.

**AN: This is really sappy, but I'm a sucker for happy happy endings.  I probably just should have ended the story after Chapter Nine, but I had to go on.  It leaves a lot of questions unanswered – which brings me to another point…I have an idea of writing another story telling what happens to Jina and Heero between the end of Chap 9 and this epilogue.  Should I write it or not?  R&R and let me know if I should even bother telling you about them.**

**Epilogue**

Quatre watched the merriment of the celebration from the porch outside, gazing in at the shining faces through the large glass doors.  With a mug of warm tea in his hand and warmth overflowing in his heart, he couldn't be happier.  Except if…

His thoughts trailed to her again, and he habitually raised his hand to finger the metal symbol that hung from a small black rope around his neck.  The Chinese symbol read "dog," he knew.  Jina had acquired the small trinket in Beijing, a hundred years ago.  Quatre remembered it as the oddest situation, he and Jina meandering through the narrow channels between buildings in the city to be stopped by an old weathered man.  This fortune teller gave the necklace to Jina with a smile, accepting nothing in return and insisting that this was Jina's zodiac symbol, even though Jina could never remember how old she was or in what year she was born.  Jina wore it almost constantly from that point.  At least, until she left.

"Hey, Quatre!" Duo's voice called, breaking into the blonde's thoughts.  "What're you doing outside?  All the fun is going on in the house."

Quatre managed a weak smile.  "I was just thinking."

"Thinking about your guardian again?"  Duo came and rested against the porch railing with Quatre, looking out over the vast wilderness and letting his gaze rest on the horizon.  

"She's not my guardian anymore," Quatre reminded the old vampire hunter.  "There's nothing left to guard.  No more Purebloods."

Duo nodded and looked down at the dark red wine in his glass.  With a sigh he reached out and poured the liquid, watching it disappear as it soaked into the ground.  "I've been thinking a lot of Heero, too," Duo admitted.

"He disappeared a couple days after…the whole thing, right?" Quatre asked, even though he already knew the answer.

"Yea.  And Jina left right away, right?"

"She did," Quatre confirmed.

Duo sighed again, retaining his uncharacteristic melancholy air.  "I wonder if they're still around somewhere."

Quatre continued to rub his thumb over the Chinese dog symbol.  "They are alive somewhere," he insisted.  "They may not be together, but I have no doubt that they are both alive somewhere."  He took a sip of his tea mug and watched the sun start to dip below the horizon.

"Are they happy?" Duo asked.  The question took Quatre by surprise, making him relinquish his gaze on the horizon and stare at Duo instead.  

"What do you mean?"

"I asked if they were happy.  Do you think they are happy, wherever they are?  Do you think that Heero's gotten married like Hilde and me?  Do you think Jina's got a loving husband and is celebrating the birth of their beautiful baby girl just like Cathy's celebrating with you tonight?"  Duo fell silent and continued to watch the sun set.

Quatre blinked.  "I don't know.  I'd like to hope that they both found happiness."

"We haven't heard from them in a year, Quatre.  A whole year.  A lot can happen in one year; just look at us."

The blonde nodded.  "Exactly one year ago," Quatre added.  He was aware of the unique date of his daughter's birth, being on the anniversary of his transformation from vampire to human.  The significance of her birthday was not lost on him, or on Duo.

"Kind of wish that Heero was around still," Duo admitted.  "I'd feel horrible if he continued to hunt vampires after he left and we gave up."  Duo shrugged.  "I'd feel a little guilty, as if I were breaking some promise to him.  It was him and Hilde who saved my life and got me into the whole vampire thing."

Quatre looked at him with confusion showing on his face.  "I always thought that you were in the Heero's unit in the war, just like Trowa and … Wufei."

"No," Duo said with a wistful smile, finally turning his head to look at Quatre rather than the sinking sun.  "I was just a street rat before I met them.  And meeting them was the best thing that ever happened to me, despite the recurring attempts for vampires to eat me."  He flashed Quatre a smile.  

"You feel like you owe Heero a lot," Quatre ventured.  

"Just like you feel you owe Jina for your life."

"That's because I do.  If it weren't for her, I'd have died a long time ago."  He lowered his gaze to the floor and gripped the symbol of his necklace tightly.  "I miss her so much."

Duo nodded silently.

"I suppose we should go back inside," Quatre said after a moment.  He let go of the necklace and reached up to rub his eyes.  Not until he touched his face did he realize his face was wet.  He'd been crying.

"Your wife and baby daughter await," Duo said with a nudge and a smile.  He held the porch door open for Quatre and they both entered back into the festivities.  

"Quatre!" Hilde screeched from somewhere near the kitchen.  She rushed through the small intimate crowd of friends and embraced him with great fervor.  "Your little Angelica is so beautiful," she squealed in feminine excitement.  

"Thank you," Quatre managed between the jumping and spinning in circles.  Hilde finally managed to calm down after her fifteenth baby attack of the day.  "Catherine and I are very proud of her."

"You should be.  She's absolutely beautiful."

Quatre's attention was diverted from Hilde as he saw Cathy with the small bundle of blankets in her arms.  Cathy looked absolutely radiant, her auburn hair shining in the evening light and her eyes sparkling with a happiness that Quatre hasn't seen since their wedding day.  He was utterly and hopelessly in love. 

Catherine bid goodbye to most of their guests, only Duo and Hilde were staying the night.  After the door was closed, she danced her way over to Quatre, handing him the newborn in her arms.  

"It's too bad Trowa and Roddy couldn't be here," Cathy said with a hint of sadness in her usually boisterous voice.  

Quatre stared wide-eyed at the small child he held.  Her hair was soft and strawberry blonde, and her eyes were gray as most babies' were.  He gave a little smile of amusement as those blue-gray eyes tried desperately to focus on his face.  Gently he stroked Angelica's soft face with the tip of his finger.

"I'm sure they're more than happy where they are," Duo was saying, conversing with Cathy and Hilde.  "And I think they happen to be eloping in Paris right now."

"Really?" Hilde and Cathy squealed at the same time, pressing Duo for more information.  

Quatre blocked out the small gossip that was occurring around him.  He instead focused his attention at the angel in his arms.  With a sigh he shifted her small weight and smiled again as she closed her eyes and tried to refocus them on her father's face.  A little hand appeared from the folds of the blanket, wavering and reaching blindly up to touch Quatre's finger as he stroked the side of her face.  He placed his finger in her palm, delighting as her tiny fingers curled around his one.  

"Quatre," Cathy said again, getting his attention.

"Yes dear?" he asked, a little dazed at being interrupted.  

"I said that it is time to put Angelica to bed."

Quatre nodded, looking down to where his wide-awake child was playing with his finger.  "I think she's nocturnal, though," he said with another smile.

"And I don't know where on earth she'd get that trait from," Cathy said, putting her hands on her hips.  

Quatre gave a sheepish smile to his wife and kissed her gently on the cheek.  

*******

"Quatre," Cathy moaned from the bed.  "What are you doing up?"  She grumbled as she turned over in bed, moving the blankets to see her husband standing by the baby's crib.  

"Just staring in amazement," he answered in a hushed whisper.  "Go back to sleep dear.  Everything is fine."

He heard the sheets moving on the bed as Cathy settled herself back in a comfortable position and went back to sleep.  He thought he heard her mumble something about the marrying vampires, but he wasn't sure.  His senses weren't as acute as a year ago.  

His attention turned back to his daughter, watching her as she stared right back at him.  She was still trying hard to get the focus eyes thing down and Quatre couldn't help but smile at Angelica's efforts.  As far as he could tell, his daughter hadn't slept at all that night, simply lying there peacefully when he'd put her to bed hours ago.

Maybe she really was nocturnal.  Was she a vampire?  Quatre doubted it.  After all, he wasn't one anymore.  

Vampires.  His thoughts again drifted to his guardian, his savior.  Jina was out there somewhere, still caught in the nightmare of a vampire's life.  She never received the same gift of mortality that Quatre had.  And she fled from his presence the following night.  Quatre's hand strayed to the necklace again, lifting it up and over his head to examine it more closely.  His finger traced the lines of the symbol.  Dog.  The zodiac sign that claimed its owners to be loyal.

And Jina had been loyal.  A more caring friend than he ever believed possible.  She loved him more than Catherine did, and probably more than he loved Catherine – though it was a different kind of love.  Jina would have died to protect him.  And it was Jina who taught him the meaning of unconditional love.  His heart ached at the thought of her now, wandering the streets somewhere as they used to, with no home.  

Quatre dangled the necklace over his daughter, watching her reach out with tiny hands to grasp the shining metal symbol.  He quickly tied the black rope to the mobile that hung over her head, letting the necklace just within her reach.  Her fingers curled around it protectively.  Angelica was born in the year of the Dog as well, Quatre reminded himself.  

His musings were cut short by a noise downstairs.  Not a noise, but a _feeling_ that someone was downstairs.  He cast a quick glance to his sleeping wife.  The hair on the back of his neck rose, and he no longer doubted that there was an intruder in the house.  

Quatre crept to his doorway, peering outside for an answer to the strange feeling that now enveloped his heart.  Down the hall, another head was poking out of a doorway – Duo was searching the hall just as Quatre was.  They locked eyes a moment, each nodding to the other and coming out into the hall.

"Did you hear something downstairs?" Duo asked in a hushed voice.

Quatre nodded, not missing the fact that Duo had his old katana held in one hand.  Quatre'd never had a weapon of his own, and he moved across the hall to the closet, grabbing the baseball bat inside.  Duo smiled at Quatre's weapon of choice.  The two had been learning the game for a few weeks, and Quatre decided now was as good a time as any to practice his batting stance.  

They crept together to the edge of the stairs and slowly started making their way down.  Quatre's mind reeled as he walked soundlessly down the stairs that normally creaked.  Someone was in his home?  His thoughts bubbled at the prospect of someone causing his family harm.  

So involved was he in his thoughts that he didn't notice he'd missed one of the steps until he went rolling down the rest of the way, banging his head numerous times as he tumbled down the staircase.

A pair of hands halted his fall, right before he reached the hardwood floor.  His first instinct was to fight against the hold they had on his shoulders, but then his other senses kicked in.

He recognized her smell.  That unique blend of harsh metallic sting from blood, and the warm softness of a forest.  It was her.  

His arms wrapped around her neck tightly, not caring at all if it were a comfortable hug or choking the object of his current affections.  He simply held as tightly as he could, breathing deeply and shuddering with joy.

"Jina," Duo breathed behind him, arriving a moment or two later after having walked down the stairs rather than rolled.  

She said nothing until Quatre finished his hug and backed away slightly.  "Hello, Duo," she answered finally, her voice soft and as bewitching as he remembered it. 

"I've missed you," Quatre blurted out, his eyes watering.

"And I've missed you," Jina said, her eyes alight with hope and happiness as she gazed at her old master.  "I hear you have reason to celebrate."

Quatre was about to answer when Jina's attention suddenly seemed to be drawn to the top of the stairs.  Cathy and Hilde were up, having awoken during Quatre's tumble down the stairs.  A small wiggling form rested in Cathy's arms.  Without a word, Jina moved up the steps, smiling warmly at Cathy and Hilde before turning her gaze on Angelica.  Cathy handed the baby over for Jina's closer inspection.

"She's beautiful," Jina commented to no one in particular.  "Congratulations."

"I was beginning to think I wasn't going to see you again," Quatre admitted, joining Jina on the stairs as they both admired the young baby.  

"I had to come.  I could feel your joy, and we came right away.  At night of course," she added with a smile.  

"We?" Duo asked, picking up on that minute detail.

"We," a low voice said from the shadows of the den.  Duo whipped around, his braid swinging as he focused on the figure emerging from the doorway.  

"Heero?"

Quatre's eyes, too, strained against the dark to see the man at the bottom of the stairs.  Duo's little yelp and hugging assault of the figure confirmed that he was, in fact, Heero.  And Heero was alive and well.

"Nice to see you too," Heero managed to say through Duo's hug.  He endured more hugging from Hilde and Catherine, his old hunting partners before he spoke again.  "Congratulations."

"Thank you both," Quatre answered him.  Quatre had a smile on his face that rivaled the best of Duo's grins, and it was infectious.  Heero's serious countenance broke and he smiled back at the happy father.

Duo immediately stepped backwards, shock evident in his features.  "Heero?  Your teeth…"

The smile faded instantly from Heero's face, and he looked up to Jina on the stairs.  That's when Quatre noticed it.  The obvious signs of a growing vampire.  His intense blue eyes were streaked with a web of crimson.  The points of his elongated teeth showed slightly whenever he spoke, gleaming in the moonlight that filtered through the house.  

"What of them?" Jina hissed, her own teeth growing to vampire length as her anger grew.  Quatre could see the red of her brown eyes intensify, even in the dim light.

Duo stood flabbergasted, looking first at Heero, then Jina, then back at Heero.  "You said that if any of us were to be turned," Duo said softly, the hurt obvious in his tone.  "Then the others would kill them."  He looked up at Heero, waiting for his old partner's reply.

"I know."

"Was it an accident?" Duo asked.  Quatre's imagination overloaded, flooding his mind with visions of Heero's capture and vampires forcing him to damnation.  He saw Heero scouring the streets for blood and happening to run across the most dreaded and famed of all hunters: the vampire who hunts vampire.  Jina recognized him and took him in…

"No," Heero answered.  "It was not an accident."  

Quatre's imaginary story burst.  He looked aside to Jina, who had a wistfulness and…an unreadable light in her eyes as she looked down at Heero.  Heero was staring just as intently back up at her, that light reflected in his own blue eyes.

"You're in love," Quatre said, speaking his thoughts out loud.  Gasps were heard from the girls and Duo just stared at Heero.

"I changed him," Jina offered.  She seemed not to notice that Angelica had grabbed a lock of her dark hair in tiny fingers.  "It was his choice."

Duo's look softened.  Quatre too, understood.  Heero didn't want to leave her.  And he had made the commitment to stay with Jina for the rest of eternity.

"We only came to let you know we're alive," Heero said, his eyes resting on all of the mortals of the room.  "And to congratulate you all on your successful lives."

"And congratulations on finding each other," Hilde said, putting a hand on Heero's arm.  Heero nodded a farewell and disappearing into the shadows of the den again.  

Quatre blinked at Heero's sudden withdraw.  Jina has been teaching him well to disappear like that, he thought.  He turned and accepted his child back into his arms.  Angelica remained holding onto Jina's hair, and the vampire seemed not to mind at all.

"It was good seeing you again, Master," Jina said with a sad smile as she kissed his forehead.  

"And good seeing you, too," Quatre replied, his voice choking on held-back sobs.  

"There's a wedding in Paris we need to attend," she said with a broad smile.  Jina pulled her hair gently from Angelica's grasp.  Then she, too, disappeared into the shadows of Quatre's house.

End


End file.
